The Body in the Building
by SnitchCatcher
Summary: Post Judas on a Pole. Booth and Brennan look into the murder of the remains they found in an abandoned building. BB and slight Hodgela. Rated T. COMPLETE!
1. Discovery

**The Body in the Building**

By SnitchCatcher

**Chapter 1**

**The Discovery**

Most people loved the decorations, the carolers, and the gift exchange; all the joyful parts of the holidays. But Temperance Brennan's absolute favorite part of the winter holiday was today, the two weeks after the holiday when everyone came back to work.

No more carolers on street corners, or co-workers humming Christmas songs at work. And definitely no more people getting excited for New Year's Eve and whatever party they were going to.

_I honestly don't see the attraction._ She thought about the event of gathering around a tv watching a ball drop slowly down for twenty seconds. And then there's the awkward New Year's kiss thing, _because you're really going to be with that person for the rest of the year. _

Brennan was so caught up in her thoughts that she didn't even realize that someone was at her office door.

"Geez Bones, what's got you in such a good mood?" She didn't need to look up to know who it was, after all, he was the only person who called her that.

"Nothing." She replied, looking back at her computer screen trying to remember what she had been doing when she got sidetracked.

"You're happy to be back at work, aren't you?"

"No, I've been here all week." She said as she checked her inbox. She was expecting an e-mail from her publisher about her next chapters that were due.

"You're joking! It was Christmas Bones and you were working?" He couldn't believe her. Well, maybe he could, but he'd figured she would take some time off.

He had had a great Christmas. Rebecca had let him have Parker on Christmas Eve and morning. It had been his first Christmas with Parker and he couldn't have been happier about it. And then there was New Years Eve, which he had spent with Cam. Although they weren't actually dating, they had decided to spend the night together, and hey, he wasn't complaining.

Brennan on the other hand, he knew probably had spent Christmas alone and wondering why she had been abandoned yet again. Probably blaming herself thinking she wasn't good enough.

"I'm not catholic, so I don't celebrate Christmas. Therefore I had no need for any time off." She simply ignored his reaction as she finished going through all of her mail. "Was there a reason you came down here Booth?"

Thrown off guard by the change of topic, Booth didn't have time to reply before she picked up talking again.

"Because I have a bunch of remains to examine and identify. So if you don't have anything important, I need to get back to work." She got up from her chair, put on her lab coat, and headed towards a set of remains that were laid out on the platform.

Scanning her ID, Temperance walked up the steps and picked up a clipboard. Quickly followed by a flustered Booth who was at this point just trying to keep up with her. Brennan, unaware that Booth had even followed, started mumbling something to Zach Addy, newly Dr. Addy.

Booth turned to Angela who was leaning against a table waiting to be of any service. "So, what's with Bones?"

Angela glanced at Booth before responding. "Come on, Christmas is over. Basically the worst time of the year for Brennan and to top it all off, right before her brother and her father abandoned her. Again."

"Yea, so shouldn't she be upset." Booth was confused, but then again to him anything involving Brennan confused him.

"She's spent the past week practically alone, and I think that she's glad that there will be people around. Less likely to be distracted by any straying thoughts." Seeing Brennan look up quickly at Booth, he being completely oblivious, Angela added, "Family or otherwise."

Booth was about to question Angela's last comment when Brennan finished conversing with Zack and walked over to Booth. Causing him to forget what he was going to say.

"So, do we have another case?"

"Uhhh…Yes."

"Okay, I'll grab my coat."She said, still completely engrossed in the papers she was reading and unaware of Booth's reaction.

_I am about ready to beat them over the head if they don't figure this out soon! How can they be so oblivious, especially with how he was just looking at her._

* * *

The pair walked out into the fresh air of the day and climbed into Booth's car. Brennan's lack of caring who drove slightly worried Booth but only for a second before she looked over and asked about their new case.

"So, what's the case?"

"Some demolition workers were doing a standard check of a building that they were about to blow up, you know, to make sure there weren't any kids playing inside or anything. They had smelled something 'extremely nasty' and decided to check it out. Long story short, they found a body."

"That was supposed to be short?" She smiled slightly as she glanced at Booth and turned back to looking out the window.

"Well, I didn't want to be criticized leaving anything out." Booth replied accusingly, then noticed the smile on her face. Lately he had started to notice things like this. Like right now, how her smile was so beautiful and almost carefree.

Brennan looked up to notice that Booth was staring at her. A blush began to creep across her face and she quickly tried to cover the fact. "Are you ever going to learn to actually watch where your driving?" she said in hopes of him not seeing her blush.

"Actually, We're here."

Brennan looked out the window at the scene. It was an old decrepit building that looked, in her opinion, which it would fall down soon if they didn't demolish it soon.

As they approached the building a man walked over to the pair. "Agent Booth, nice to see you."

"Agent Boyd," Booth replied shaking the man's hand. "What brings you here?"

"The government had bought the property, expanding or something, and they put me on the case." Agent Boyd glanced net to Booth noticing Dr. Brennan. "And who's this?" he asked with a smile.

"Dr. Temperance Brennan." She held out her hand as she noticed that he had the same smile as Booth, the charm smile, as she liked to call it. But other than that, they didn't have much in common. Boyd had sandy-blonde hair with the clearest green eyes that she had ever seen. Having trouble tearing her eyes away from his, she went on, "I'm Booth's partner."

"Bones here identifies mutilated bodies."

"I've told you before, don't call me that." Brennan said as she ducked under the police tape that Agent Boyd held up for her. "So, where's the body?"

"Your going to love this Bones." Booth said as he slightly emphasized the last word.

* * *

"Zack, I want you to take pictures of the body before we remove it. Then Hodgins, you can take samples from the body and the washer and compare. Angela, I want you to give us a face as soon as you can."

"That is so cool." Hodgins looked at the body inside the washing machine.

Brennan glared at him. "There is nothing cool about a dead human being shoved into a washer."

"What I mean is that it's an ingenious way to get rid of a body. I mean, a washer in an old abandoned building. Who would ever think to look for someone there?"

Brennan just looked over at Angela with a 'why in the world are you dating him' look. With only a shrug in response, Brennan started for her office where two FBI agents were waiting for her.


	2. Confrontation

Thank you so much for the reviews. When I first read them I literally squealed with excitement that people were actually reading this, let alone liked it! You guys are my motivation. Keep reviewing. And I'll try as hard as I can to updated asap. Hope you like the chapter!

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**Chapter 2**

**Confrontation**

Walking through the door of her office Brennan was quick to notice that Booth was, of course, sitting in her chair. _Really, he can be so rude sometimes!_

Looking around she found Agent Boyd sitting on her couch uncomfortably as if he wasn't sure he wanted to be here anymore. But his composure quickly changed when Brennan seated herself next to him on the couch.

Booth stood and walked around the desk. Seeing as how there was no where else to sit, he leaned up against the desk for support, not sure if he was comfortable with his partner's choice to sit so close to Boyd. _What's it matter to you she's just your parnter. Focus_! "So what's the news Bones?"

"Well although I couldn't tell much from the position the body was laying in, I can tell you one thing for sure." Brennan paused wanting to break the news gently to her partner.

"You know, your silence isn't very comforting. What?" Booth looked at her quizzically.

Taking a quick breath she replied, "It's definitely a child." Looking up at her partner she saw that this upset him. He hated the idea that someone could hurt an innocent child who hadn't even the chance to live their life yet. And his hurt hurt her.

Agent Boyd was slightly confused by the silence and the worried look on Dr. Brennan's face. "Is there something wrong with that?"

Brennan snapped her head up in time to see Booth begin to flare in anger. "Of course their's something wrong with that. It's a child's body that we found out there today, who is about to be lain out onto an examination table because they were killed and now have nothing left except bones and rotting flesh! An innocent child who hadn't even had the chance yet to even begin living their life!"

Boyd stared at him, "Agent Booth you know that you can't begin to get emotionally attached just because we're dealing with a child. That only leaves room for errors. And plus we don't even know why or how the child was killed. In some cases, children have acted irrationally towards others sometimes past the extent of abuse and have even killed. This child may have been killed by someone trying to defend themselves from the attacking child."

Booth looked angrier than ever and was about to blow.

"You know you can't close off any possibilities until we get all the facts, if we do we might get too far down one scenario and be completely wrong and by the time we get to the other which we ignored at first, it's too late." Agent Boyd was now standing, staring straight into Booth's eyes, unwilling to back down. "We don't want a repeat of last time." This caused a mixture of anger and pain to wash over Booth's face.

Brennan just looked between the two confused as ever, but she knew one thing, "Booth," she looked at her partner, afraid of what she was about to say to him. "Agent Boyd is right. We should wait until we get all the evidence before we jump to any conclusions."

"Oh, I see. Sure, take his side and turn against your own partner." Booth felt the her words smack him in the face, she would rather take Boyd's side than his own. Turning back to the other agent he said smoothly, "I didn't mean to jump to conclusions, it's just in our past experiences, Temperance and I have discovered otherwise."

The sound of her first name from his lips sent shivers down her spine and she couldn't help but notice the slight tightness in her stomach as he said it; _Temperance and I. _But she quickly snapped out of it and gave him a censorious look. Although Booth had technically apologized to Boyd, she still detected the anger that was seething from Booth

Brennan quickly jumped in, "Booth just tends to be over sensitive towards cases dealing with children due to his son."

"Oh, Booth I didn't know you had a child." Agent Boyd just gave him a glance and turned his attention back towards Brennan, smiling at her. "This is slightly embarrassing to admit, but, I actually don't want children."

Brennan tore her stare from her partner and gazed at the other FBI agent giving him her full interest. "You shouldn't be embarrassed, I don't want children either. Most people," quickly giving Booth a look "don't understand how I don't want to. It's nice to meet someone who shares the same idea with me."

Booth just stood there loathing the look that Brennan was giving Boyd at the moment. It was a look of hope and it frightened him. Bones normally only saved that look for those rare occasions, like right after she had been kidnapped and he had come to her rescue. When she realized the she was safe, and in his arms. _His arms, not some other person that she just met!_

"Well Bones I'm sure you have work to do seeing as how we have a case on our hands. So, ya wanna get crackin'?" Booth tried as hard as he could to not sound jealous or upset. _It's not like I have anything to be upset about, she's just my partner. No she's not. Yes she is. You know she means more to you than that. _"The sooner you get the preliminaries to us we can figure out who the kid is. Concentrate Bones."

Brennan just turned and glared at Booth. Where five minutes ago she was worried for Booth and defending him, she was now angry with him beyond belief. "Don't try to tell me how to do my job Booth. Zach is working on removing the bones at the moment without destroying them as we speak; they were extremely fragile for some reason. And stop calling me Bones!"

"Fine, whatever." At this point Booth had just given up and had let his anger get the better of him. "Agent Boyd we should be getting back to the office." And with that he started for the door, but turned in time to see the exchange between the two.

"Dr. Brennan, it was nice to meet you and I'm sure I'll be seeing you again."

"Call me Temperance." She said as she shook his hand.

"And you can call me Sam." He gave her a smile and she lit up. "Also, here's my card. Call me if you find anything out and my home and cell number are on the back in case you need to reach me there."

"Agent Boyd, sometime today." Booth growled at him. Causing him to let go of her hand and walk out the door with a quick wave goodbye.

Booth turned and walked back to Brennan as she sat down at her desk. "You know, ther's no need for you to be flirting with every guy that comes in here."

"Booth, what are you talking about?"

"Does the name Will Hastings mean anything to you? You know killed his own brother, yet you still end up on a date with him. There was also Charlie the overnight guy, not to mention every other guy in that town that you were flirting with. Hell, you even dated your old mentor." He was overflowing with anger as he continued.

"You know Bones, you seem to have real trouble with overstepping the boundary between personal and professional. And somehow it always ends up endangering our case and in the end your life too!"

All too late Booth realize what he had said, as the pain of what he had said flashed in her eyes. But she quickly recovered and the pain was replaced with anger.

"Get out of my office." She whispered it so softly he could barely hear her. But as she repeated herself a second time she was much louder and anyone from across the lab could hear the bitterness dripping from her voice.

Before she could take a breath to repeat herself a third time, Booth had stormed out of her office not giving a glance back, caring less whether or not she was upset.

Which she was.

Angela ran in seconds later and took her friend up in her arms. Only to get a grunt in return. "Ange, I'm fine. Now could you please let go of me?"

"There is no way you are alright. Bren, I could here you guys yelling from across the lab."

"We just had a professional disagreement. Now I think I just need to go splash some water on my face and I should be fine." She headed for the bathroom and stopped before she entered. "Really, I can do this by myself."

"Fine, but I want an explanation when you get back." And with that Angela walked away towards a speechless Hodgins and a confused Zach.

Brennan entered the bathroom and quickly made sure she was alone before locking the door behind her and sliding down the wall and turning into a quivering puddle on the floor. She let the tears pour from her as she sat there trying to understand why so was so upset. W_hy does he seem to affect me so much?_

After a few minutes she was finally able to collect herself and walk towards the sink. Splashing some water over her face, Brennan looked up into the mirror. She was hoping it wasn't obvious that she had just been crying, which unfortunately it was. She quickly splashed her face a few more times and deemed herself reasonable, deciding that it was now safe to leave the bathroom.

Brennan walked into her office and sat down at her desk, unable to believe how men could be so chauvinistic and pigheaded. She opened up the file that had been left by Cam for her to look over, trying to calm down. She thought back to what had just occurred in her office only minutes before.

"So who's this Agent Boyd? And why is he giving you his number?" Angela popped her head up from the couch, where she had apparently been laying, waiting for Brennan to come back.

"Oh, he's just the other agent who's working on the case." She replied, praying that the warmth of her cheeks weren't noticed by her friend.

"Bren, is this what has Booth's boxers in a twist?"

"I don't know what that means and I would rather not talk about Booth right now."

"Alright." Angela sat for a minute in silence, but just couldn't keep quiet. "Well, then tell me about this guy giving you his number."

"He just left his number so I could call him once we've learned something."

"Honey, he gave you his cell and home number too. I don't think he left those for the case, I think he left them for you." Sometimes she didn't understand how Brennan could be so unaware to all the guys hitting on her.

"I highly doubt that Sam was implying anything, Ange."

A squeal erupted from the couch. "Your on a first name basis with this agent already! Was he the guy that just left before? Because he was so hot!"

"Dr. Brennan, the skeleton has been removed from the washing machine." Zach popped his head in the door, much to Angela's disappointment, interrupting her interrogation.

"That was quicker than expected."

"Well, the body hadn't fully decomposed yet, so the remaining flesh and muscles had helped hold all the bones together." He reported as they scanned into the platform and walked over to the remains.

"The victim appears to be male. Approximately five to eight years old. Race is caucasian. Time of death, I'd say about three weeks ago. Has Hodgins gotten his sample from the body?"

"Yes, Dr. Brennan."

"Anything else you would like to add Zach?"

"The bones were, well, they were extremely brittle and light."

"Alright, clean the bones and do a preliminary examination to see if you can find a cause of death and get back to me."

Although Brennan was beyond extremely angry with her partner at the moment she knew that she should share this information with him right away. Picking up the phone in her office she quickly dialed the number that she knew by heart, only for it to ring twice and be sent to his voicemail recording '_You've reached Booth, leave a mess-_' She hung up the phone and contemplated her options.

* * *

Booth stormed from her office, unsure whether he should be more mad at her or at himself.

He knew that he had hit her low, he knew that she had weaknesses with relationships. She had trouble with trusting people and it was extremely rare for her to let them in, but when she did, they always turned out to hurt her. And now he had hurt her too. He hated himself for that.

But she deserved it. She had turned on her own partner, her friend, him. And then took the side with that pompous jackass Boyd. '_You can call me Sam' _Well_ I can think of a few other names to call you!_

Booth was so caught up in his thoughts, he didn't even notice that he was walking straight into someone until he was on his back on the floor with papers flying everywhere.

Booth quickly jumped up, gathered up the papers, and held out his hand to help her up. "I'm really sorry. My head wasn't exactly keeping up with me I guess."

"It's alright." She took his hand and stood up realizing that something was wrong. "Seeley, is everything alright? Are you okay?" She placed her hand on his arm trying to comfort him.

He looked down and saw the concern etched on her face. He just shook his head. "I'm just overly stressed."

She looked up at him with a devilish glint in her eye. "I know how to calm you down."

He had to smile at that.


	3. Realization

**Chapter 3 **

**Realization**

Brennan wasn't sure what she was going to say. All she knew was that she needed to talk to him. And that's how she had ended up here, at ten thirty at night, standing on her partner's front step.

She was cold. She was tired because she had been working all day straight, without stopping. Hungry because she had just kept working, forgetting to eat. Worried that she had hurt he partner. Afraid that he wouldn't forgive. Confused as to why he was even mad at her. Lonely because with out him she was…_empty_.

So there she stood, waiting on his front steps, trying to make herself ring the doorbell. His neighbors probably thought she was crazy. She had been walking up to his step and turning around only to go back again and repeat this process numerous times. She'd only been there for five minutes but to her it had felt like a half an hour at least.

She was walking back down the driveway when the picture of the little boy's bones on her examination popped into her head along with a picture of Parker, Booth's son. _If anything do it for the little boy, do it for Parker so that he doesn't end up like that._ She turned around and walked to the door.

As she approached, she thought of all the facts that they had come up with today. Angela hadn't been able to give the boy a face because the skull was deteriorating. The boy had a disease that had caused his bones to slowly deteriorate; it was a rare disease. So although they didn't have a face, they were able to narrow the search down extensively. And Hodgins had been able to determine a selective area in a town not far from D.C. where the boy was killed due to various dirt and pollen on his body. From there they could narrow the search even more. And that had left them with three candidates who could possibly be the boy back at the lab.

Now she just needed to get up the courage to talk to Booth. _Maybe I should just call Sam instead._ She started to turn away, but thought of how that would just make things worse with Booth made her stop. After all, they were partners, so she should tell him first.

With that she lifted her hand and knocked on the door three times.

* * *

Booth walked out of his bedroom. With the sound of the shower in the background he had barely heard it, but he had heard it none the less. So he headed down the hall, looking at the clock on the vcr as he passed his living room. Seeing the time, he stopped and wondered who would be knocking at this time of the night.

Not bothering to look out the little peep-hole to see who it was, Booth opened the door to the chilly night air, suddenly regretting it.

Standing on his front step was the woman who he had spent all afternoon and all evening trying to get out of his head. And of course, here she was. He was still mad at her, but had decided that he was definitely more than mad at himself, which was why he hadn't been able to face her.

* * *

Brennan turned around about to walk away seeing as how no one was answering when the door opened. She looked back and saw Booth standing at the door with nothing but some pajama pants on, looking very cold in the night air.

Figuring it would be better to talk inside, she pushed her way in past him. She walked into his living room and turned to face him. He just stood there in shock. _Why is she even here?_ And then it hit him, _Oh God, she can't be here right now!_

As Booth came closer to her she fully noticed for the first time his lack of shirt. She gazed at his chest, the fine tuned, well toned muscles that defined themselves as he reached up and brushed a strand of her hair out of her face. And his touch! It sent shivers down her spine, how his gentle hand skimmed across her face.

She finally found the strength to lift her head up and face him. Locking eyes with him, she was entrapped in his beautiful eyes….She needed to look away, to concentrate on what she came here to do. Apologize and Information. Purely work and nothing else. He was her partner and she needed to stop thinking about him in any other way.

She opened her mouth to speak…

* * *

He couldn't understand why she was here. He turned around to ask her that when he saw the look on her face, one that confused him. It was a look of fear, and tiredness, and worry, and hurt, and something that he couldn't place.

Booth stepped closer to her hoping that he could get her to say what was bothering her. She looked down. _I wouldn't be able to look at me either after what I had done today._ He softly pushed away some hair that had fallen out of her messy ponytail and away from her face. He smiled to himself, he knew that ponytail and he loved that ponytail. It was messy, put up quick in order to just get it out of the way while she worked. It always outlined her features, making her face even more beautiful.

Then she looked up and locked eyes with him. Her icy blue eyes were so beautiful; he couldn't help but get caught in their rip tide that just pulled him in.

And then it hit him and he hated himself. Her messy hair, her tired eyes. She had been working all day since he had left, trying to find out who the child was. A feeling of guilt swept over him as he thought about how he had yelled at her earlier saying that she didn't care about her work enough. He blamed himself.

He decided that he needed to break the silence, but was surprised when she opened her mouth.

"I'm sorry." She looked down again, showing how insecure she felt.

"You shouldn't be the one who's sorry. I should." He hated himself even more. Bones was apologizing to him. She didn't apologize; she always thought it showed weakness. "You didn't do anything wrong. I was the jackass."

She looked up at him and saw that he meant it, she saw that he had been beating himself up for the fight they had had today.

"I honestly don't care who did what to start it Booth." She placed her hand on his arm for comfort. "I just want to end it."

"But that's not fair to you for me to start yelling at you and then you apologize to me for it. That's just not right." She stared at him quizzically.

"Well, then make it right." She said barely audible. Looking down, avoiding his searching eyes. She looked up shocked when he took her hand in both of his own.

"Bones, I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I yelled at you. I'm sorry that I hurt you. I'm sorry that I left you. I promise that I'll never do it again." She stared at him as she heard him apologize amazed at the idea that he thought that he had abandoned her. She held back the tears that were trying to escape. She couldn't imagine how Booth would ever abandon her.

Adverting her eyes from their intense stare, she remembered the folder that was in her hand. She unwillingly pulled her hand from Booth's and held out the folder. Leading her over to the couch, they sat down and opened it up.

"Due to dirt and pollens we located where the murder took place and due to the disease we were able to narrow the names to three boys. These are them." She stifled back a yawn as she watched Booth flip through the possible children.

He smiled at her and stood up helping her stand. "Bones, your amazing. And your incredibly tired. Go home and get some sleep you deserve it." He smiled at taking in the stunning picture that he was holding in his arms. "I think I should drive you home though, that is if we want you to make it there alive."

Brennan was basically sleepwalking with one of Booth's arms around her shoulder for stability and her head on his shoulder; he made the perfect pillow. At some point she realized, he had wrapped a blanket around his shoulders, which just made it all the more comfy.

They were practically to the front door when Brennan heard something that made her snap out of the daze she was in. Or rather it was the lack of a sound that she didn't hear.

Hadn't the shower been running when she had gotten here? She thought back to when she arrived and thought that she had taken Booth away from his shower. But then she realized it and she pulled herself away from Booth's warm body.

He wasn't alone.

She had just barged in on him with some woman after they had – god she didn't even want to think about it. She had to get out of there.

* * *

Booth had felt her tense up and then pull away. He was unsure of what had caused her sudden tense state and was about to ask when she quickly pulled out her phone.

"Actually, someone's picking me up. Ange had dropped me off." Brennan was quickly texting someone with her cell phone without even taking her eyes away from Booth. Panicking she sent it to the first person she could think of at the moment.

"Bones, it's cool I can give you a ride." He looked at her confused and then it hit him. Why she was freaking out all of the sudden. With his Bones there in his arms he had completely forgotten.

"Hey, Seeley, where did you put the conditioner?"

Brennan looked up, almost afraid to see who was walking out of his bedroom, fearing that her assumptions had been right. Which, of course, they were.

Out walked Dr. Saroyan, her boss, in nothing but a towel.

Booth turned around seeing Cam walk out of the bedroom. He looked between the two women. Cam looked pissed that it was Booth's precious 'Bones' at the door and yet slightly triumphant at the fact that it was her in the towel in Booth's House and not Brennan. The look on Bone's face making it all the better for Cam and all the more worse for Booth.

The awkwardness growing until a knock at the door broke the silence between the three. Booth went to answer the door, Brennan turned quickly and told him he didn't have to, it was just her ride here to pick her up.

But it was too late Booth had already opened the door to none other than Agent Boyd.

He smiled at Booth, "Hey, I'm just here to pick up Temperance."

Booth glared at him and turned around to face Brennan, "He's your ride?"

Brennan quickly tried to avoid him but it was hard seeing as how he was blocking her exit. Trying to get past him, she looked up with nothing in her eyes except pleading. She softly whispered to Booth, "Please, just let me go."

Shell shocked from what she had said, she easily passed by Booth and walked out the door with Boyd. As she made it down the drive way, he put his arm around her for support because he noticed how drained she was from the long day. He helped her into the passenger seat and then got in the driver's seat and drove out of the driveway.

From the door, Booth saw Boyd hold held her slight and light frame up; jealousy seething from him thinking about how that should be him right now. He turned and looked at Cam.

"Why was she here?" She asked.

"The case, I was going to drive her home since she was tired from working all day but…"

He looked exhausted and confused and he felt it. Cam came closer to Booth and just touched his arm. "Come on Seeley, lets go to bed."

And with that he followed her to bed, thinking of the difference he felt between when Brennan had touched him and when Cam had touched him.

* * *

Boyd looked over at the figure asleep in the passenger seat. He was driving around trying to figure out where she lived. He had tried waking her up and asking her but she would just mumble something and go back to sleep. He didn't want to take her to his place. It would confuse her, waking up somewhere she didn't recognize. Suddenly her phone started to vibrate.

Recognizing the name on the screen as someone Temperance worked with, he quickly answered the phone.

"Uhhh, Hello?" Not quite sure what he should say.

"Booth? What's wrong with your voice? I hope it's not hurt from your fight with Bren. Speaking of which, why are you answering her phone?"

"Actually, this is Agent Boyd. I was giving Temperance a ride home, but well, she won't wake up long enough for me to find out where her apartment is."

"Oh right, Agent Boyd. Hi, I'm Angela."

"I kinda got that when I read the caller id. So could you by any chance direct me towrads Temperance's house?"

* * *

About an hour later, Boyd had finally stumbled his way around the city, finding it difficult to follow Angela's, and reached her apartment. Now the question was, how was he going to get her up stairs?

Angela had told her which apartment was Temperance's and he figured he would walk her up, but she was sound asleep. So Boyd opened the door and carried her to her apartment. After trying a few different keys, he finally got it open on the fifth try.

Her apartment was so nice. It was so clean too, but he figured she must not spend that much time at home, seeing how dedicated she was. He carefully carried her down the hallway looking in each door as he went, trying to figure out which one was her room. As he reached the last door he opened it to find a luxurious king sized bed and guessed that he had the right room. Quietly he laid her down and covered her in the blanket.

Silently Boyd made his way to her kitchen and looked for something to that might wake him up a bit. Pouring himself a glass of water, he sat down on the couch to rest for a second. He had rushed over to pick her up as soon as she had texted him without even thinking and now two hours later he was sitting on her couch trying to fight the drowsiness overcoming him.

* * *

Booth woke up early the next morning; unable to fall back asleep he got up, showered, dressed, and left before Cam could even notice that he had gotten out of bed.

He drove around unsure of where he was going. As he pulled over, he realized that he was parked out front of the Jeffersonian. Looking at the clock, Booth saw that it was nearly eight o'clock and figured she would probably be there by now. So he exited his car and entered the building.

The lab was quiet. Seemingly unopened. But Booth new better, she was probably just sitting at her desk going over any e-mails she may have received last night or working on her next novel. When he reached her office he was shocked to find it empty. He opened it, silently thanking himself for getting a copy of the key, and sat down to wait for her. He needed to see her.

But an hour later there was still no sign of Bones and he was beginning to panic. All the possible scenarios running through his head.

"Still nothing?" Booth only shook his head at Angela who was standing in the doorway and took out his cell phone to try calling her again, to no avail.

"I'm gonna go and check her apartment." He stood and walked out of the office.

"Let me know. Okay?" Booth feebly smiled at her.

Booth swung through Dunkin' Donuts and grabbed some bagels and two coffees, just incase he found her. Pulling into the parking lot, Booth got out of the car and walked into the building. Failing to notice the car parked there that he would have recognized.

Knocking on the door, Booth heard noise coming from inside the apartment. He smiled to himself, realizing that he had worried for nothing, she had just overslept. She was only human after all.

Booth looked up as the door opened and his smile quickly faded, turning into a growl.

* * *

Brennan woke with a start. She was sweating from her dream and was completely out of breath. She had been running down a white hallway. For some reason she felt as if she should would have died if It had caught her. _What was this It?_

Turning over on her side, she looked at the clock on her nightstand. _9:30! Shit, I'm late!_ Jumping out of bed, Brennan ran into her bathroom, quickly taking a shower before changing into a new pair of clothes and fixing her hair.

_As if Cam doesn't have reason enough to hate me, now I show up late for work. Just my luck._ Then Brennan suddenly remembered that she had left her car at work the other day…_wait how did I get home? _Bits and pieces of the night still eluding her. She remembered being at Booth's, she remember seeing him half naked, she remember seeing Cam in nothing but a towel. After that she couldn't recall what had happened. The pain coming back to her. _Why do i even care?_

And with a new found confidence she walked out of the room. As she ran into her kitchen she rapidly turned on the coffee pot and turned to grab her bag, when she noticed someone stirring on her couch. Brennan put down her mug and walked over to see who it could have been.

* * *

Agent Boyd awoke to the sound of someone running down the hallway. Unsure of where he was or what time it was, he just turned over on his other side. Hearing a pair of footsteps near, he quickly lifted his head.

Everything came back to him as he remember driving Temperance home from Booth's and how he had fallen asleep on her couch by accident. He looked up into the face of a slightly confused Brennan who was unsure of why he was on her couch. Slowly he began to stand.

"Sorry, I guess I didn't realize how tired I was after I dropped you off. I sat down for a second and I was just out."

"So _you_ drove me home last night?"

He smiled at her and nodded, hoping that she wouldn't notice how awkward he suddenly felt.

"Right," She looked at him for a second and then gave him a sly smile, "So could you possibly drive me to work?"

This time he full out grinned. She wasn't mad at him, and he was celebrating inside. "Sure, but you have to promise to eat something for breakfast. Your stomach sounded like a monster truck last night. When was the last time you ate?"

Brennan walked to the kitchen and pulled out some cereal for her to eat. "Maybe a day or so ago. I was slightly busy working." She explained as she devoured the bowl of cereal.

"Alright, I just need to grab my bag from my bedroom and then we can go."

Boyd just nodded as he looked around her place, taking in every inch of it, when he heard a knock at the door. He walked over and opened the door without even thinking; somewhat shocked as to who had been knocking.

* * *

What was he doing here? Had he spent the night? He was wearing the same clothes as the night before. C_hill, you're over reacting._

Hundreds of ways to beat the man to a pulp started to run through Booth's head.

He saw a smiling Brennan appear from the hallway. "Okay, Boyd. I'm ready." She turned slightly confused as to why he was already standing there with the door open. Then she realized someone was at the door.

She walked towards the door only in time to get a quick view of Booth shoving a bag of bagels and a cup of coffee into Boyd's hands and storming off down the hallway.


	4. Aggravation

I would just like to say sorry for the long updated, true it's only been like a week, but still that's a long time to wait, especially when it's related to Bones. At least, that's how _I_ see it, but who would ever listen to me? Anyway, here it is.**

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**Chapter 4**

**Aggravation **

Walking into the lab, Brennan tried as hard as she could to avoid Angela's stares. She knew that her friend would be brimming with questions that, at the moment, she would rather steer clear of.

She reached her office and put her key in the lock only to realized that the door was already unlocked. She tried to think to the previous night. Remembering that she had locked the door, Brennan quickly entered her office to see if anything was missing.

"So, Mr. Sexy drove you home last night and brought you to work this morning?" Angela said as she leaned up against Brennan's desk with an accusing tone.

"That's a statement not a question. And you already know the answer to that." Brennan paused momentarily and looked up and rolled her eyes. "Mr. Sexy?" she asked as she began to look around her office again just double checking.

"Honey what are you doing?"

"I swore that I had locked my office door when I left last night. I always lock my door. And when I came in it was unlocked and my lights were on." Brennan had stopped at this point, deciding that everything was accounted for and sat down at her desk.

"Booth was here earlier waiting for you." Angela noticed Brennan tense at the mention of Booth. "Are you sure that's all that is bothering you?"

"Yes."

"Bren, I know you better than that."

"Ange." Brennan looked at her friend, who noticed the confusion in her eyes. "It's just….I mean…ahhh! I don't know, Yesterday I-"

But the rest of her statement was cut off by her phone ringing.

"Brennan." Angela just rolled her eyes in frustration. Whenever she came close to opening up to her something would get in the way and she would close up again. "Alright... of course. Bye."

Brennan was up and walking out the door before Angela could even blink. "Who was that?"

"There's another body."

"Be careful." Angela said, starting to worry. She never liked her friend going out into the field, but at least Booth was always there to protect her. "And say hi to Booth for me."

Brennan glanced behind her, "Actually, that was Agent Byod." And with that she was out the door and gone.

As they got out of the car, Brennan looked up at the building. Although she had been there only a day before, she hadn't taken in what was around her. The building they had found the body in was old and falling down, but the buildings around them were well kept. And now with the second body that tuened up...

"Tempe, did you hear what I just said?" Boyd was looking at her with confusion written allover his face.

"No. Sorry." She came back to her senses and began to follow Boyd into the building.

"Well, the team had gone over everything in the building before, but I told them to go through it one more time last night, just to be safe, and they found another body. One that wasn't there the first time around."

Brennan opened up her bag and took out a pair of gloves. Quickly putting them on, she began to inspect the body that was in front of her. "Well, the victim was male, caucasian, and approximately eight to eleven years of age."

Walking around the body, Brennan glanced up, noticing someone in the doorway.

She continued, trying her hardest to ignoring the hurt eyes that were cutting into her, more importantly, Booth's hurt eyes.

She turned to Boyd. "It looks like this was most likely cause of death." She said pointing to the indent in the skull of the body. "Dead probably two weeks max."

Although she was speaking to him, her mind was else where. More specifically on the man who was standing at the door taking in the scene in front of him. It hurt her so much that they were fighting. _It's not like it's my fault. It's just his overprotective male attributes that are inevitable tendencies in the male of any species that are causing him to feel as if he has to protect me. But he just went too far this time. No he didn't and you know that._

She turned back to Boyd realizing that she had stopped talking and was staring at him, well, actually past him, but Boyd didn't seem to realize that. "So, yea, the body can be sent back to the Jeffersonian now, and my team and I can get more back to you as soon as possible." She turned to grab her bag, trying to leave before she ran into him.

"Alright. Then we should get going so that you can get back to the lab, I guess." He smiled at her, completely unaware at the fact that she was torn up inside. She was unsure of whether she should apologize or not, hardly even paying attention to what Boyd was saying.

She brushed past Booth accidentally as she walked out the door; trying to ignore the sudden flutter of her heart at his touch. She looked up at him to smile, hoping to put the fight behind them, but in response she only received, "Excuse me, Dr. Brennan."

She froze. The coldness in his voice cutting through her. She gave him a confused look, quickly turning to try and catch his attention. "Booth?" Nothing. He just continued walking, ignoring her questioning look.

Agent Boyd, oblivious to the stares she was giving Booth , took her by the hand to lead her to the car, practically pulling her out the door.

Booth turned and ignored the two as they left the building. Looking out the window he saw the pair reach the car; Boyd opening the car door for her, getting a look in response and probably a comment on how she can open a door for herself. Boyd was just grinning at her.

Booth felt a sudden pang in his heart. _That should be me out there, joking about her independence._ All of the sudden he realized that he was losing her. He was losing _his_ Bones all because of some stupid fight, over some stupid guy. _I have to talk to her. _

Angela looked at the caller ID on her phone and quickly picked up. She had been trying to reach Brennan all day to no avail. "Hey sweetie."

"Hey Ange. Are you doing anything tonight? I know it's Friday and all, but I was hoping you could come over. I was hoping maybe we could talk."

This was perfect, just what she wanted. "Of course, Bren. That's just what I need right now."

The knock at the door startled Brennan out of her thoughts. _Why would Angela be knocking? She just left for the store._ Angela had left only minutes before to go to the grocery store to pick up some ice cream and other junk food. They had decided that that was what they needed in their current state of...well, shock. The news had been big. True, when Angela had gotten there she already knew the answer, but as her friend she wanted her to be there.

Walking to the door, Brennan quickly opened it to the man that was standing in the hall. Booth brushed passed her and entered her apartment. His attitude towards her angered her; he had just waltzed in without even being invited, after completely ignoring her earlier.. But her stance changed when she saw the look in his gentle, brown eyes.

"Booth. What's up?"

"I was hoping we could talk."

Booth wiped his palms on his pants. He was extremely nervous and was starting to wish he had thought this through more clearly before he had come bursting into her apartment.

"Booth…." Brennan looked at him with questioning eyes. She could tell that something was wrong and he could see the slight worry in her eyes, which just made him even more nervous.

"Bones, I've been wanting to talk to you lately. And, well, I can't really wait any longer." He paused. _Of course you can wait! Wait until you know how she feels, heck, wait till you know how you feel. She's just your partner and your just overreacting because you know Boyd's reputation. But you cared about her before he even came into the picture. Why am I even fighting with myself? Now she's looking at me like I'm crazy. Pay Attention!_

"I….you see, umm…."He realized that he was chickening out. He needed a way to get out of this, and quickly. "Can I use your bathroom?"

Brennan just stared. What was going on with him? "Yea, sure."

He walked down the hallway and into her bathroom. Needing to clear his head, Booth splashed some water over his face, hoping that it would calm him down.

_Okay, this is fine, she's just your partner and you just came over to talk. Nothing more. _He looked at his reflection in the mirror. Calm, cool, and collected. _I can do this. _

With his new air of confidence, Booth took a paper towel and dried off his face. Crumpling up the wet paper, he went to throw it into the trashcan but something caught his eye. Intrigued, he bent down and looked at the colorful box in the trashcan.

His face went pale.

She paced her living room, wondering what was taking him so long in the bathroom. _Why is he even here? Did something bad happen?_ She calmly told herself to stop worrying. She was jut overworked from the news she had received tonight and now she was just overreacting.

Lost in her thoughts, she didn't her the bathroom door swing open loudly. "Temperance! What the hell is this?"

She looked up startled and slightly confused at what he was talking about. When she saw what was in his hands she cursed herself.

"How could you let him get you pregnant?" Booth fumed at her.

"What!?" Brennan was now outraged at Booth. "First, you barge into my apartment and now you're blaming me for a possible pregnancy! You are way out of line here Booth."

He couldn't believe what he was hearing. She was defending that jackass. _She didn't even want to have kids, and now she's defending the guy that got her pregnant!_

Before Booth had a chance to respond Brennan had already opened the door. "Get out."

"I'm not going anywhere."

"Booth, get out now. I don't want you here. Now leave, before I have to force you out." Brennan was now yelling so the whole world could here.

Aggravated, Booth stormed out the door, pushing his way past a very confused Angela.

Angela walked into the apartment after hearing the yelling from all the way down the hall, to find her best friend standing in the middle of the room crying. The idea alone of her friend crying scared her, Brennan was strong, she never cried.

"Sweetie, what happened?" Angela placed the bags of food on the table and walked over to her friend, wrapping her in a tight hug.

"I don't know Ange." Brennan began to collect herself and sat down on the couch. "He just showed up here after you left and said her wanted to talk. Then all of the sudden he said he needed to use the bathroom and when he came out he was yelling at me. Accusing me of letting myself get pregnant with Boyd."

Angela just shook her head. "Bren, you could have just told him the truth."

"No, Ange, we decided that we weren't going to tell and I want to keep our promise."

Angela could see how hurt her friend was and decided a distraction would be the best thing for her right now. "So what do you want to watch, The Wedding Planner or Boogeyman."

"I've never heard of either of them." She gave her a confused look.

"Boogeyman it is." Angela popped in the movie, retrieved the tub of ice cream and two spoons and sat down on the couch next to her best friend for what she figured was going to be a very long night.

* * *

Another end to another chapter. Does anyone get why I chose Boogeyman? Comments, questions, concerns, and any ideas you have are always welcome (hint, hint). I might even try to work your ideas in to the story...but you know what that requires! 


	5. Engagement

**Sorry about the gap in the update time, but i've got the basics set for the rest of the story, so the next shouldn't take too long. Thanks for all the reviews! Hope you like this chapter. Oh the angst!

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Chapter 5

**Engagement**

Booth turned off the engine and sat there for a few minutes thinking. As he got out of his car, he glanced towards a parking spot to see if a certain silver sports car was still there, which it was. Whether it was a good thing or a bad thing, he wasn't quite sure yet.

Turning down the hallway towards the lab, he passed the security desk and waved to the guard on duty. He had seen him so many times before when he had dropped by to get Bones to leave the office at a normal hour. He was never really successful, but every once and a while it worked.

Stopping at the entrance to the lab, Booth thought. _What am I doing? Why am I here?_ He knew the answer to that of course, but he still couldn't think of how he was going to explain himself to her.

_Just tell her the truth: I'm jealous._

_That'll scare her away. And god knows I've already pushed her away enough._

_But if you don't tell her, she'll continue to think that you're just an asshole. _

_But I can't risk the chance of losing her by telling her that I love her—_where did that come from!? _I know that I have feelings for Bones, but love?_

_Duhh, you lover her idiot!_ _You've known it since you've basically met her, why do you think it didn't work out with other women; you always compare everyone to Bones. She's set the highest standard that no one is good enough to meet…except for her. _

And with that he decided that he was finally going to take his shot and tell her the truth, or at least try to.

Booth looked up from his musings towards her office to see if she was inside. Through the glass door, he could see Brennan walking towards her desk. He smiled to himself; _of course she's still working away._

But as Booth began to walk towards her office he noticed another person in there with her. Booth just growled; it was Boyd. What was he doing here? Booth was about to storm into the office when the events in front of him caused his body to stop; frozen in place.

Boyd was down on his knees in front of Brennan. She was smiling and nodding her head. This could not be happening. _Did he just---and did she just---are they…? _Booth stood in shock for a few seconds before turning around and storming off to the only place he could think of.

* * *

Brennan had spent the day focused on work; at least she was trying to focus on work. Her thoughts kept drifting back to Booth and what he said. Brennan's anger boiled as she thought of it. _I can't believe he thinks I could be so reckless. What does he think I'm some sort of slut? _She gripped the sides of desk as she tried to calm down. She'd been like this all day; think about it, get angry, calm down, and then start to think about it all over again. _Well there's no way I'm apologizing this time. I did nothing wrong, _**again**_, and he's not going to make me feel guilty for something I didn't do. _

With a new motivation, Brennan decided to work on the next chapter of her novel; one that involved the main character kicking ass and breaking hearts, as usual. She wished that were true in her real life, but it never was. Her thought were broken when Angela walked into her office.

"Hey, I finished the sketch for the second victim and we have an id. Here's his file." Angela sat down on Brennan's couch after placing the paper in front of her. Angela's face was red from crying. "He was a cute kid."

Brennan looked up at her friend who was seated on the couch, noticing the hurt in her friend's voice. "Ange, I know how hard these types of cases are for you." Brennan walked across the room and sat down next to her friend. "We just need to keep going in the hopes of stopping whoever is doing this to them."

"There's no way to say it other than: the world sucks," The two women looked up form the couch to the man at the door. "But without you doing what you're doing, it would suck even more."

"Nicely put, Agent Boyd. Thanks." Angela said, as she smiled to the man who had just entered the room. Temperance, on the other hand, just rolled her eyes at his choice of words.

"I didn't mean to interrupt or anything, but I just wanted to stop by and see if anyone would want to join me for some food."

"Can't. Sorry, I have plans." Angela lied quickly.

Brennan stood and started to her desk. "I don't know, I was planning on working on my novel while I waited for some results from a few tests Hodgins is doing."

"Come on, you need to eat. You might as well come with me. Did you even eat anything for lunch today?"

Her avoidance of looking at him gave him his answer; making him even more determined than before.

He gave her a pleading look. "Don't make me beg."

"Ohhh, make him beg. It'll be so entertaining." Angela piped in.

Brennan turned from her desk to glare at Angela only to find Boyd down on his knees. "Please come to dinner with me." He grabbed hold of her hands. "Please."

"Bren. How can you say no to that?" Angela managed to comment between giggles.

"If I say yes, would you get off the floor?"

"Yes…"

Brennan stood there for a second, making it look as though she were actually contemplating it. She knew she needed food, and she knew that at this point Booth wasn't going to show up and force feed her like he normally did. So she knew her answer, but she decided to torture him by making him wait.

"You know, you didn't actually have to grovel." Brennan replied gaining a laugh from Angela, who was now lying on the couch, enjoying the show in front of her. _She deserves to be happy and since Booth clearly isn't stepping up, this Boyd guy'll have to do._

Boyd jumped to his feet and quickly grabbed her coat and helped put it on. "Well, let's go then." And with that he pulled her out the door, like an eager little kid.

* * *

Booth held the door open as they entered. La Chaumière was one of D.C.'s finest French restaurants and Booth planned on enjoying it. 

"Do you have reservations, sir?"

"Yes, under Booth." He had been lucky enough to score a table for two at the last minute, it was normally hard to get a reservation at all, but someone owed him a favor and he had decided to cash it in tonight.

"Ahh, Mr. Booth. Right this way." He said as he led them towards a nice candle lit table for two near the back. Booth pulled the chair out, allowing Cam to sit down and then went around the table and sat down himself.

"I'm glad you asked me to come, Seeley." Cam smiled across the table.

"Me too." He replied, hoping that it was at least partly true.

After half an hour of numb conversation their food arrived. Booth was finely becoming more comfortable in the awkward situation and thought that maybe this wasn't so bad. Cam was a nice, smart, beautiful woman and he _did _enjoy her company. He thought about how happy they had been when they had actually dated before.

But his thoughts of happiness quickly ceased when he looked up from his plate and saw a couple enter the restaurant.

* * *

Brennan sat down in her seat, which Boyd had pulled out for her. "You know I can do that myself." 

He smiled at her as he sat down, "But where would the fun in that be. And anyway, you deserve to have nice things done for you, even if it is just me pulling out a chair for you."

"Thanks." She whispered as she blushed. No one had told her that before. Every time Booth had held the door for her, or helped her out of the car, he would always just reply 'I know' or 'just let me' when she would say she could do it herself; he had never told her that she was worthy of being treated that way. _And of course, you can't go ten minutes without thinking of him! Stop, Tempe!_

She looked across the table to Boyd. "This is a nice place. When you said dinner I thought we would just go to a diner or somewhere and talk about the case."

"If we're going to be eating, it might as well be somewhere nice." He gazed at her, making Brennan feel slightly uncomfortable as she blushed.

"Okay. Well, anyway, Angela was able to sketch the second victim and we found out his name; Aidan Madhoil. He went missing about a month ago with his little brother Lucas, who happens to be one of the boys we had narrowed the other victim down to be. Hodgins was able to –"

Boyd had put his hand over Brennan's mouth to get her to stop talking. "Tempe, I'll remove my hand as soon as I know that you'll stop talking about the case. At least for now because I know I'm not going to be able to stop you from talking about it at some point to night. At least that's the type of person I've heard that you are."

She nodded, showing that she'd hold off on talking about the case and Boyd removed his hand. "What do you mean by you've heard I'm that type of person?"

"Well, Booth does talk about you; the hard-headed, stubborn, arrogant doctor that he works with. I'm pretty sure that I knew all about you before I even met you."

Brennan was shocked; Booth talked about her to other people. "Wait, so you've worked with Booth?"

"Ahh, I'm guessing he didn't tell you about me." He looked across at her as she shook her head. "I used to be Agent Booth's partner up until about a year and a half ago."

She thought for a few moments before she realized, "That's when Booth and I started to work together…I didn't know Booth had had a partner."

"Yea, well, I still occasionally work with him when ever there's a case that doesn't include bones. Besides, I can understand why he wanted you to be his partner over me…"

"There's nothing between Booth and I, were just friends."

"I never said there was, I'm saying that I wouldn't mind spending my days with you."

At that Brennan blushed, "Well, we might be spending a lot of time together now...because of the case I mean."

"Why Dr. Brennan! Are you flirting with me?" Temperance was shocked with herself, it was like Angela had taken over her body. She was sure she never acted like this, but for some reason she didn't mind and she decided to go on.

"Depends, are you flirting back?"

"Booth said you weren't a people person...but then again, he also said you were full of surprises."

"Well, like I said before, Booth and I are just friends. He doesn't know everything about me." She was tempted to join Boyd and drop her jaw too, but stopped herself.

* * *

Booth had to keep himself from falling over in shock. He saw Bones walk into the restaurant with Boyd and they were led to a table close by. Unfortunately for Booth, there was a drape between the tables and he was unable to see his Bones and her dinner partner. They hadn't even seen him and Cam sitting at the table as they passed; heck, Cam hadn't even noticed that they had walked by and that Booth was now paying barely any attention to her. 

Lucky for Booth, he could hear their conversation through the drape. Cam still unaware of what was going on, Booth decided to listen in. He told himself that he was protecting his partner; Boyd could be the murderer for all they knew.

"_Well, we might be spending a lot of time together now, because of the case I mean."_ Booth was a bit shocked, by the way she had said the last part; it had sounded like she was flirting with him!

"_Why Dr. Brennan! Are you flirting with me?" _Right, play all innocent...

"_Depends, are you flirting back?" _Booth was now completely and totally stunned. This so wasn't his Bones. Then again, his Bones didn't believe in marriage or having children either, but hey, apparently that had changed too.

Booth was suddenly brought back to reality when he realized that Cam was playing footsies with him. She smiled across the table at him and he decided that if Bones considered them '_just friends_' then he could too. Hey, if she wants to get married to some other guy then he could care less.

He flagged down the waiter and paid the bill and then stood up offering his hand to Cam. He spoke a little more loudly than necessary, hoping that a certain person might hear. "So Camille, would you like to go back to my place now? I'd rather be alone with you right now, than be here."

Okay so the last part was a total lie, he told himself, but he couldn't stand to be alone and Cam was right there…

She smiled up at him and grasped his hand. As they walked out of the restaurant he made sure they passed by Bone's table and he made sure that there was a glowing smile plastered on his face. He ignored the look of shock he received from his partner, and walked out of the door with Cam on his arm.

* * *

He was laughing at what she had just said, but Temperance paid no attention. She could have sworn she heard Booth. _Don't be silly. And what did you decide earlier about not thinking about him for the night? Oh, right, DON'T THINK ABOUT HIM!_

Brennan turned her attention back to Boyd and smiled, but she admitted it wasn't one of her best. She listened as Boyd talked about one of his trips to the Amazon, _he is quite amazing actually, he's had an interesting life like me._

"So do you--" But Temperance stopped mid question when she saw Booth standing up from a table that had been blocked from her view. His hand was outstretched and he was -- "_So Camille would you like to go back to my place now? I rather be alone with you right now than be here."_

He just – she had – and they just! Her mind was spinning. He was with Cam for real, not just some one night thing, releasing his biological urges like she had made herself believe; they were in public, on a date, together, as in a couple. How could she have thought that he might have ever cared about her when he had Cam? A look of shock and pain spread across her face as he passed by their table and he ignored her.

"Do I what?" Boyd looked at her curiously, apparently unaware to the person who had just passed by.

"Do you want to get out of here?" Brennan brought her attention to the man sitting in front of her. He was smart, kind, and totally hot, and he liked her; he was there for the taking.

* * *

Chapter over!!! What did you think? Drama!! I'll be updating soon, don't worry. soo...reviews are always good...walks away humming _just keep reviewing, just keep reviewing, reviewing, reviewing, what do we do...review, review!_


	6. Repercussions

**I would like to thank **Bellabun**, my favorite reviewer (and you all should too) because otherwise I would not have been motivated to stay up till 2 in the morning writing this chapter, true i didn't post it until tonight, but hey, i can't spoil you too much. And I hope you like it, I slightly was shocked when I wrote it, but it just seemed to fit, so hopefully you will be shocked too. **

**Chapter 6**

**Repercussions **

Angela just stared as her friend walked into her office the next day, smiling. She followed her friend and closed the door behind her.

"You slept with him!"

Brennan turned to her friend shocked, _how does she know?_ "I don't know what you're talking about, Ange." She avoided looking at her friend and turned on her computer.

"Please, you're walking on air at the moment and you won't look at me." She saw Brennan blush and she knew she had hit the mark. "So how was he?"

"Okay, I feel slightly uncomfortable talking about that now, no wait, at all."

"Alright fine. But I will get information from you at some point." She grinned at her friend, God she had deserved last night so much. "Well, how was the dinner part of the evening?"

"Short."

"What!" This so wasn't like Brennan...

"Well, we got to the restaurant and we were talking and then I asked if we could get out of there. God I'm wishing we had eaten something." She just continued typing on the computer as she talked over he grumbling stomach, as if they were talking about nothing at all. The lack of response caused Tempe to look up from her work.

Angela's face was shocked. "You just asked to leave?"

"Yea, you know, we were flirting and then when I saw Booth, I asked if he wanted to get out of there." She went back to her work, satisfied with her answer.

"Wait, Booth was there? And you were flirting?" Angela grabbed her friend and pulled her to the couch. "Bren, explain what happened after you left the office." So she told Angela what had happened down to every detail. And as she finished, Angela sat back, speechless.

"Ange, you're scaring me. You always have an opinion."

"You want the truth Bren?" She nodded her head. "I think that Booth..."

" Booth what?" Brennan was confused why her friend had stopped talking.

"Yeah, Booth what?" She turned to her office door, where she found Booth leaning up against the door frame. "Okay, don't reply. Brennan, I came by to see if you found anything out from the second body." He used her last name, making her feel the intensity of the cold shoulder he was giving her.

Brennan stood up and walked to her desk, put on her lab coat, and walked past Booth. "Well, apart from what we found out yesterday, no." She walked down the hallway of the lab, trying her best to be professional.

"What do you mean, what you found out yesterday?"

"Oh, what _Cam_ didn't tell you that we've identified the victims?" She was so caught up in trying to make him upset that when she turned the corner, Brennan ran into someone, causing her to nearly fall over.

"Tempe! I'm so sorry. I was just on my way to find you." Boyd said laughing. "I was wondering if you wanted to come with me to interview the family?" He graced her with a smile, which she quickly returned.

Booth, on the other hand, was about ready to knock this guy's lights out. "Boyd, I believe that _I_ am the agent in charge of this investigation." He said stepping forward.

"Of course, Booth. I just figured Tempe and I could do the gruesome work while you check out the boys' teachers. They were the last ones to have seen them." He continued, confidence glowing. "Do you know the names of the teachers? I could get it from the file for you." He said indicating the manila folder in his hand, as he put his arm around Brennan.

Booth had had it; Boyd's arm trying to snake around Brennan's waist was the last straw. He pulled his fist back and punched Boyd square in the face, brining him to the floor.

Pulling his hand away from his now rapidly bleeding nose, Boyd called to Booth, who had turned and started walking out the door. "I hope you know I'll be informing Cullen of this."

Booth turned toward the man who was on the floor, finding Bones crouched down next to him. She looked up at Booth with a confused look on her face, unsure of whether to be mad and yell at him, or proud of how he had hit him. _Proud! He just hit your boyfriend, why would you be proud?_

Seeing her come to the realization that she was on Boyd's side, Booth replied, "I hope you do." And with that he was out the door, leaving a hurt doctor and a bleeding agent behind.

"I should have at the least had you suspended for this, Booth." Cullen fumed across his desk. "But you're too damn good and we need you in the field right now."

"Thank you, sir."

"Don't start thanking me yet. You are from this moment on, banned from this case and Agent Boyd will be taking over your role in the investigation. You are now being reassigned to the Delvaugo case in New York. Your flight is leaving tonight at five." Cullen stood from his desk and looked at Booth. "Now you may say thank you."

Booth was momentarily speechless, but quickly stood up and solemnly replied. "Thank you, sir." He turned and reached to open the door.

"Booth."

He turned to look at his boss, "Sir?"

"Off the record. Did you hit him hard?"

Booth smiled, "Hard enough to bruise my own hand. Pretty sure I broke his nose."

"Good." Cullen surprised Booth with a chuckle. "Now go pack Booth."

"Thank you, sir." Booth walked out of the building laughing to himself. Who knew that Cullen cared about Bones?

Brennan opened her door and threw herself onto her couch. It had been a long day, and things had only gotten worse after Booth had left. She had gotten in a fight with Boyd over him calling Cullen. He got pissed at her for defending Booth and stormed out.

Angered, Brennan then got into a fight with Angela. She recalled the argument and started to hate herself.

"_You haven't told him yet!? He deserves to know."_

"_I just haven't found the right time yet."_

"_You can't just continue keeping things in and lying to him."_

"_Oh, what only you can do that?" Angela had suddenly regretted what she had said._

"_Of course, turn everything on me, just because I don't go out every night and party with a new guy every night, doesn't mean I don't live my life." She was fuming at that point and just kept going. "Because you are the perfect role model right? Everyone should get pregnant after dating a guy for only a month!" At that point she stormed out of the building past a confused Hodgins. _

"I am such an idiot!" Brennan yelled at herself. She remembered the hurt look in Angela's eyes as she had turned to leave. And to top it all off she had yelled loud enough for the whole lab to hear, meaning Hodgins now knew, and it was all her fault.

She was torn out of her self pity when the phone rang. She looked at the caller id, but she didn't recognize the number. "Hello?"

"Hi, is this Dr. Brennan?"

"Yes. May I ask who's calling?"

"Oh, right, sorry. It's Rebecca." She had met the woman a few times before and she was nice enough. She even understood the woman, when she had explained why she refused to marry Booth. She was an independent, capable woman and she respected that, but why was she calling?

"Oh, Hi." She was suddenly filled with fear. Had something happened to Booth? She hadn't heard from him since he had left that morning, and he hadn't responded to any of her messages.

"I know that this is probably a lot to ask you but, as you know Seeley's out of town for work." _What is she talking about? _"But he had promised to take Parker for awhile because I'm supposed to go and see my mother, she's kind of dying, and doesn't have much time left, but I now have no one to leave Parker with." Brennan tried to understand what the woman was saying, she was talking so fast. "And I was hoping maybe you could watchParkeruntilSeeleygetsback?"

"I'm sorry, what?"

"I was wondering if you could watch Parker until Seeley gets back?"

_Hah! Me with a kid!_ "I'm really sorry, but I'm not very good with kids."

"He won't be any trouble at all, I promise, and it won't be for too long. I just have no one else to ask and I really need to see my mother."

"Are you really sure you want me to watch Parker?"

"Yes. Booth talks so highly of you, and you even know martial arts, so you could protect him, which you shouldn't need to. I just…please?" She sounded so desperate.

Brennan grummbled to herself as she answered, "Alright."

"Great! I'll drop him off tomorrow at your office around four. Thank you so much." And with that, Rebecca hung up the phone, before Temperance could reconsider.

_What the hell did I just agree to? _

Brennan walked around the table to see if there was anything she had missed on the bodies. She had been going over them all day and still had nothing. Then again, she wasn't exactly focused. _Why didn't he tell me he got reassigned? Or that he was going out of town? Or that he was supposed to have Parker? _Temperance knew that he would have been glowing over that last part and wouldn't have been able to keep it to himself.

She was so wrapped up in her thoughts that she didn't notice Boyd scan himself into the platform and come up behind her. "So got anything?"

"Huh, oh, no. Nothing." She turned to face him. "You?"

"Well, by what the parents said, no. But then I went and interviewed the teacher and she said she could have sworn that the dad had come and picked up the kids. But get this, the dad denies it. My bet is that it's the dad."

"And the mother had no clue that her husband had picked up the kids. I don't know."

"They've been divorced for a year and it was his week with the kids. I think that the dad picked up the kids and did something to them, you know, lock them up so they wouldn't have to go back to their mother and he said that they were kidnapped. But after like two weeks, the kids try to get away and the dad tries to stop them, accidentally killing them."

"Do you have any facts to back it up?"

"The dad is a construction worker who was working on the demolition. So he knew about it and had access to the sight."

"Well, it does seem--" She was cut off by a sudden scream.

"Dr. Bones!!" Parker ran up onto the platform causing the alarm to go off. Brennan scooped Parker up into her arms and walked over to the edge of the platform telling security that it was alright.

"Hey, Parker." She looked down at the child that clung to her. She was slightly shocked; after all, she had only met the kid two or three times. Boyd just stood on the side, baffled as to what was going on. "Where's your mom?"

"She was too slow, so I ran ahead." He said giggling. "I'm happy you're letting me stay with you." He looked up at her and whispered into her ear. "I like you."

She smiled at the kid in arms and walked down the stairs to find Rebecca.

"Thank you so much. Okay, here's his stuff; clothes, toys, books, movies, some snacks." She said as she handed over two huge bags of things.

"How long did you say you'd be gone?" Brennan grunted as she took the bags.

"I didn't. Give mommy a kiss goodbye." She kissed her son on the forehead as he refused to disentangle himself from Temperance. "Thanks. Bye!"

Brennan looked down in her arms and asked herself what she was doing. "Do you want to go into my office and play on the computer?"

"Yeah!!!" _Maybe this won't be so bad_. She turned and took Parker and his things into her office, where he sat in her chair and found his way to some online games. She was shocked that he could already do that at such a young age.

"Parker, I'm going to be working outside. If you need anything let me know." She turned to leave, but turned back and added. "But don't come onto the platform, you'll set the alarm off. Oh, and don't go anywhere unless you ask me. And don't talk to strangers."

She walked back towards the platform and thought about the last thing she had said. _Don't talk to strangers? We're in the Jeffersonian, who can he talk to that you don't know?_

_God, I'm starting to sound like a mother…_she grunted as she walked back to Boyd, thinking about how this was **the** last thing she wanted in life.

**Okay, in my defense, Parker is a big part of Booth's life and if Brennan is going to be apart of it, she needs to know Parker better.** **And plus, parker is just too cute. Alright, so I'm half way done the next chapter so keep your fingers crossed; it should be up soon.**

_hey, what's that button right below this? maybe you should click it to find out!_


	7. Anticipation?

**Sorry, i know it's a bit short, well, kinda. Anyway, it's basically fluff. (oh but between who?) You're gonna have to read to find out!**

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**Chapter 7**

**Anticipation? **

Angela, Boyd, and Brennan were all standing around the Angelator, with Boyd relaying his theory on the situation. Brennan had asked Angela run scenarios through the machine with the new information he had.

After about an hour Brennan grumbled, "There are just too many factors that we don't have." She sighed in defeat.

Just as she turned to go back and examine the bodies again, Zach and Hodgins came barreling into the room, nearly knocking Brennan over. "We've got it!"

"Got what?" Angela walked over and looked at the papers in Hodgins' grasp, avoiding his gaze. "What does all of this mean?" She said as she grabbed them out of his hands.

Zach piped up, too excited to keep quiet. "It means that they were hung and beaten with a wrench!"

"Don't sound too excited there Zach." Angela said as she heard the news.

"Lucas and Aidan were hung after they were beaten unconscious, but normally because of their young age they wouldn't have died right away because of the suppleness of the vertebrate. Lucas' disease caused him to die instantly, from his rapidly decreasing bone mass. Aidan, on the other hand, wasn't dying, so the captor hit him in the back of the head with the wrench." Hodgins finished and took a deep breathe.

"You two figured this all out?" Brennan looked up from the papers. "Good work. Ange, do you think you can run that through the Angelator?"

"Sure." She turned to her tablet and worked in the new information that they had. She played the new picture on the screen.

"Dr. Bones?"

Temperance quickly turned to Angela. "Turn it off!"

Parker made his way up to the doctor and tugged on her lab coat. "Were you just watching a movie?" He looked up at her, with a scared voice. _Great, he's going to have nightmares now!_

"No, we were just doing some work." She bent down and looked him in the eyes. "Did you see what was on the screen?" He shook his head and she let out a sigh of relief, but noticed that he still seemed upset. "What's wrong Parker?"

He looked up at all the people that were now staring at him and he just shook his head. Brennan suddenly understood that he had no idea who any of these people were, and he was probably scared because he had woken up from his nap alone.

"How about you and I go home now, okay?" Apparently that's all that had Parker wanted and he threw his arms around Temperance's neck. She wrapped her arms around him and picked him up. Standing up, she turned to everyone, "You can reach me on my cell."

She walked out the door only stopping to grab Parker's things from her office.

Angela, Zach, and Hodgins were all speechless, confused as to what had just happened; not only was Brennan leaving early, but she was leaving early with a kid in her arms. After a few moments Angela had to ask, "Wasn't that Booth's son?"

* * *

Opening the door to her apartment, Temperance realized that she didn't have any food. It was just about seven at night and Parker needed dinner, but she didn't have any food. "Hey Parker, do you like Chinese food?" She asked as she dropped her purse on the table just inside the door.

Parker jumped of off the couch that he had been situating himself in. "Can we go to the place where daddy always goes with you?" He gazed up at her with his pleading brown eyes, which she just couldn't say no to.

"Alright, but you go unpack your stuff first. I need to get changed." She said as she led him to the guest bedroom that he would be staying in.

As she changed, she thought about what Parker had said. She was surprised that Parker had seemed to know practically know her, even though they hadn't spent time together before. She finished changing and walked to what was now 'Parker's room'. She opened the door to find the floor covered with toys.

"Parker, did you bring any clothes?" She wondered how he all of these could have fit in those bags, let alone clothes too. She looked at the boy who was playing with a big yellow dump truck. He quickly stood up and ran to the door, when he heard her speak.

"Of course, silly. What else would I wear to bed?" He giggled as he took her hand. "Can we have food now?"

* * *

Entering Wong Foo's, she instinctively looked towards the bar to see if a certain FBI agent was there, only to remember seconds later that he was out of town. She mentally kicked herself for allowing him to run her thoughts like that.

Brennan glanced towards their regular 'squint' designated booth to see her three friends already sitting there. As she began to walk towards the table, she noticed Parker tighten his grasp on her hand.

"Hey Bren, is there something you're not telling us?" Angela shouted she approached the table.

"I'm just watching Parker for a day or two while Rebecca's out of town." She replied as she sat in the booth and helped Parker climb up next to her.

"Why isn't our resident G-man doing that?" Hodgins asked suspiciously. Brennan could see numerous theories running through his head. She looked down at the child who still refused to let go of her hand. _This was probably a bad idea._

"He's in New York." She looked up to find Sid bringing over a huge dish of sweet and sour chicken and two plates. "Thanks Sid." He nodded in reply and walked away.

"Why? Is it for the case? And why aren't you with him?" Angela's interest was heightened as Zach asked these questions.

"No it's not for this case." She took a bite of her chicken before continuing, trying to sound calm. "Actually, he's not working on our case anymore." Her tone was hard, daring them to continue. Hodgins and Zach took the hint and started a new conversation with each other about some bug, but Angela wasn't scared into silence like the others.

"Why?" Angela received a glare from Brennan, but she kept going. "Did you two get into another fight or something? Sweetie, if you did, you need to go back and apologize to him right now."

She sighed, it was clear that she wasn't going to be able to avoid Angela's questions, so she might as well answer them. "No. _We_ didn't get into a fight."

"Then…" Angela thought about it and realized who it must have been. She gave Brennan a questioning look, hoping that what she thought she meant was wrong.

Brennan looked down at the little boy eating his chicken to make sure he wasn't listening. "Booth punched Boyd."

"What!" She had gotten Hodgins and Zach's attention at this, as their heads snapped up. "Why?"

"I don't know, can we talk about something else please."

"Fine. Hodgins was able to identify the--"

"Something other than that!" She nodded her head in the direction of Parker.

"Aww, Bren, you make such a good mother!" Angela giggled.

"Ange! You know—" But she stopped when she felt a tug on her hand. She bent down and looked at Parker. "What is it?"

He pulled her head down so that he could whisper into her ear. He cupped his hand and mumbled something to her, only loud enough for the others to catch one or two words. Brennan sat back up and looked at the boy thinking for a few seconds.

"Do you like bugs Parker?" The boy nodded his head slowly. "Dr. Hodgins here works with bug for a living."

The boy's eyes went wide. "Really!" He whispered loudly.

"Yup." She thought back to some of the toys that had been in his backpack. "And you know how you like to color? Well, Angela here is an artist. She draws for a living."

A smile now played across his face as he looked at the people around the table. "What about him?" He said as he pointed at Zach.

"Zach is really smart and has the same job as me." He started to think about that.

"So…if I get really smart I could work like you?" He asked shyly.

"Yup." Parker just glowed at her response and crawled on top of her lap so he could see over the table and get a look at everyone, feeling a lot more comfortable than before.

"Bren, that is so cute. He has a crush on you!" Angela squealed. "Like father like son!"

Everyone laughed at that, but Angela earned a napkin in the face from Brennan and a confused face from Parker.

Almost an hour later, Angela gave Brennan a light elbow in her arm.

"What was that for?"

"Look down." Angela said simply, pointing at her lap.

Brennan looked down to find Parker asleep with his head in her lap and his arms withered around her waist. She smiled down at the small bundle. "I think that means it's time to go." She put a few bills down on the table and took the sleeping Parker up into her arms. "See you guys."

* * *

Brennan opened the door to her apartment for a second time that night. She quietly dropped her purse and carried the sleeping form in her arms toward his bedroom. Looking down at him she wondered if he would be uncomfortable sleeping in his clothes or if she should try to change him. She decided on the latter and quickly changed him into his footy pajamas. After she placed him in the bed, Temperance quietly walked to the door and was about to leave when she heard a small voice.

"Night Dr. Bones. I love you."

She turned around to the boy, but he had already fallen back asleep. Sighing, Brennan made her way into the kitchen and poured a glass of water. Going back to her thoughts from earlier, she asked herself what she was doing.

Finally after minutes of debating with herself, she picked up the phone and dialed the memorized number. The phone rang, but no one answered.

"Hey Booth, it's me, Bo--rennan. Anyway I just called to...let you know Parker was dropped off safe and sound and he's doing okay. Rebecca didn't exactly leave any information, like allergies, or emergency numbers, so if you can think of anything. Yea…well, night." She urgently hung up the phone and cursed herself for calling him. She sighed.

* * *

Booth dropped onto the bed in his hotel room. The long day had worn him out and he was upset. He had called Rebecca the night before telling her he couldn't watch Parker and ever since then, he had just felt like crap. Rebecca had been pissed that he had failed, again. She was supposed to be going out of town with her boyfriend and now she had to cancel.

At least the new case he was working on was easy, a one-two case. His team had caught the guy red handed trying to chop his next victim up. All that was left was the questioning, which would be done tomorrow. He decided to spend another night after that, and he would leave the next morning.

Propping himself up on the bed, Booth turned on the tv, hoping to calm himself down. He knew the time away was supposed to get him to stop thinking about Bones, _and stop hitting fellow agents_, but he just couldn't. Finding the tv to be unhelpful, he turned it off and stared at the ceiling. _Why does she get me so worked up? She can be so…obnoxious, defiant, pigheaded, cocky, beautiful – Great! There you go again!_

His thoughts were interrupted by the ring of his cell phone. Uninterested in talking to anyone, he quickly silenced it and turned over on the bed. Sleep was coming over him finally, when he heard the chirp of his cell phone that indicated a text message.

Booth groaned as he opened his cell. The screen displayed a message saying that he had one new voice mail, but he skipped over it and opened the text message.

Booth smiled for the first time in what seemed like days.

* * *

What do you think? Love your opinions! Things start to get interesting in the new chapter ;-P 


	8. Cleaning Things Up

Sorry it took a few days, major writers block about half way through the chapter and i kind of got caught up reading other fanfics...but any way here it is

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**Chapter 8**

**Cleaning Things Up**

Booth smiled as he looked at the text message. When he had read that it was sent from Angela, he was extremely curious. He quickly opened the message to find a short note along with a picture. He scanned the note, reading:

_Thought I could brighten up your 'black and blue' day._

_Here's a picture I thought you might want to see. _

_P.S. Next time, punch harder._

He laughed at what Angela wrote; apparently she wasn't as fond of Bones' new boyfriend as he had thought. He was interested in what the picture was, so he scrolled down. What he found made his heart stop.

It was a picture of Bones looking down fondly at the sleeping form of Parker in her lap. Her beautiful aburn hair was pulled back, but a few whisps of hair cascaded down her face and all he wanted to do was to be able to lightly brush them from her face. He felt a sudden surge of joy as he looked at the two of them.

* * *

_She was running down a long dark hallway. At each door, she would run into the bodies. Not just those of Aidan and Lucas, but also the ones of all the victims she had been unable to save before. _

_They would stare at her with white eyes and reach towards her. Their mouths were sewn together but she could still clearly hear their voices calling out to her. "Why couldn't you help us?"_

_She kept running, but was met with a dead end. They came closer and gathered around her. The cries of the children, the screams from them; they hurt her, causing her to fall to the ground. The crying._

_The crying…_

Brennan woke with a start. She heard crying coming from a figure standing in her doorway and quickly worried that she was still in her dream. But as the small figure approached she realized that it was Parker crying. She opened her arms and the boy ran to her.

"What's wrong, baby?"

"I had a scarewy dream." He shook in her grasp as he let out another sob.

"It's alright, Parker. I'm here. Nothing's going to happen. It's over now." She whispered over and over again, until she felt his small body relax in her arms.

Deciding it would be best to let him sleep in her bed instead of moving him, she got up to retrieve another pillow from her closet. As she silently got up, a small scream escaped from the bed and Parker ran to Temperance.

"Don't leave me Dr Bones." Looking in his brown eyes she saw his fear and she instantly bent down and picked him up, taking him back to the bed.

"It's alright, I won't leave you."

"Promise."

"I promise." And with that, they fell asleep in each others arms.

* * *

Brennan was a workaholic and everyone knew it, even herself. But when morning rolled around the next day and her alarm went off at 5:40, she whacked the snooze button and went back to sleep. Until it went off again five minute later. At this point, she wasn't thinking clearly and she yanked the plug from the wall and turned back over.

As she fell back asleep, Brennan felt a small body snuggle into her and she remembered the events of the previous night – _or this morning, depending on how you think about it._ A small smile crept across her face while she wrapped her arms around Parker's sleeping form.

_BEEP.BEEP.BEEP._

Brennan looked up confused; she distinctively remembered unplugging her alarm clock. Noticing that the clock was in fact unplugged, she glanced around the room trying to decipher what was making that annoying noise this early—She grabbed her cell phone and shot out of bed.

_10:30! 10:30?? That can't be right!_

She stared at the empty bed for a few minutes before realizing that Parker wasn't there. Hundreds of scenarios played through her mind of things that could have gone wrong while she was asleep. Shaking her head, Brennan jogged into the living room.

"Parker?" She looked around the room trying to find the boy. "Parker?"

"Dr. Bones, your awake!" Parker popped his head out of the kitchen. "You looked happy sleeping so I didn't wake you and I wanted to make you breakfast, like in bed, like daddy did for me once and so I decided to make you breakfast to make you even more happier."

She walked towards the smiling boy, relived that he was safe.

"No!" He ran out to her, stopping Brennan from entering the kitchen. "It's supposed to be a surpwise."

She laughed at the boy's eagerness and then at his appearance. He had some how managed to cover himself in probably every thing possible from her kitchen.

"Alright, I'll be on the couch…" She sat down and opened a book that she had left on the table.

A few minutes later, Parker appeared next her. "I'm finished!" He tugged her up from the couch and pulled her towards the table.

Glancing down at her 'breakfast', she wondered if it was safe for her to actually eat it. He had made her toast, minus the toasted part because he couldn't work the toaster, which had butter and jelly spread on top along with something else that was green which she didn't recognize. Also there were probably three different types of cereal mixed in a bowl with orange juice in it, along with a glass of milk.

"Thanks Parker, this looks delicious!" She feigned the comment, but the smile that appeared on her face was completely real. Parker was so proud of himself, that while he was jumping up and down, he didn't realize that Brennan had thrown out most of the breakfast.

"Okay, buddy, we need to get you cleaned up." _Along with my kitchen._ She noticed the milk and orange juice on the floor and the smears of jelly all over the counter and cabinets.

Parker ran down the hallway towards the bathroom. Brennan followed close behind and turned on the water as Parker got ready for his bath. "What are we doing to day, Dr. Bones?"

"Well, we could…um….what do you and your dad usually do?"

"Daddy and I play at the park and watch movies, but not scary ones because I get bad dreams, and we play catch, and we play hide and seek and play at the park! Can we do that today?" Parker asked as she rinsed the shampoo out of his hair.

"I don't know if we can do all of that today, but we can start." He clapped his hands in excitement. As she pulled Parker out of the tub, there was a knock at the door. "You start to dry yourself off while I get the door, okay?"

Parker looked up at her as she wrapped a large towel around his very small body. "Okay."

Temperance got up from the floor and walked over to answer her door. When she opened it she was slightly surprised by who was standing there.

* * *

Booth walked out of the interrogation with a slight hop in his step. The investigation was over and he was going home earlier than expected to see his two favorite people. _What could be better?_

He got into his car and double checked to make sure that he had all of his luggage. Once he was set to go, Booth pulled out of the parking garage and made his way to the airport. The traffic wasn't too bad and he got to the airport in no time at all.

Once he exchanged his plane ticket and was checked in, he sat waiting for the plane to board. He sat for a few minutes doing nothing, but couldn't take the waiting and the silence, so he turned to the person sitting next to him.

Although she was very attractive and obviously traveling alone, the first thing he noticed about the women next to him was what she was reading. Bones' face stared back at him from the back of the book that he was looking at.

"So do you like that book?" He asked casually to the woman, giving her his charm smile.

The woman looked up towards Booth and smiled, clearly liking what she saw. "It's a really good book. Have you read it?"

"A few times. I personally like that Andy Lister character." He laughed inside thinking about how he knew that the character was based off of him and how whenever he asked Bones about it she would deny it, a little too quickly.

"He is quite amazing. I would love to meet someone like that in real life, but I don't think he exists. I mean, he risked his life so many times to save Kathy, he's extremely moral and old fashioned in how he treats her, he's such a gentleman."

"I guess you could call him old fashioned." Booth wasn't really sure if he personally could be described as that, after all, he did kind of get Rebecca pregnant and they didn't even get married. But still, the character had to be based off of him.

"Her life must be so interesting."

"Who's?" Booth was confused, weren't they just talking about Andy?

"Temperance Brennan's, the author. Her life must be exciting, I mean, I doubt that she is coming up with the whole thing from her imagination, so it must be based off of her life."

Booth was mostly talking to himself when he answered. "Her life's not that great. And she works _way_ too much."

"What?" Booth had temporarily forgotten that he had even been talking to someone.

"Bones—I mean Brennan. She works way too much, whether it's a case, some 500 year old remains, or she working on her new novel, she spends a lot of her time working."

"You know Temperance Brennan?"

"Yea, I'm her partner, Special Agent Seeley Booth."

"The one she dedicated her book to?"

"Yes…"

"So you're Andy Lister!?"

"_Flight M832 for Washington, D.C. Now boarding."_

Booth stood and prayed that the woman wasn't on his flight; otherwise she might spend it asking him questions about Bones and her book and he might just have to strangle her. It's not that he didn't like thinking and talking about Bones, it was just that he didn't like the way their conversation was going. Luckily for him, she didn't stand to get on the flight. But she did continue to stare at him, hoping for an answer to her last question.

"So are you?"

He smiled and picked up his bag. As he turned to leave he called over his shoulder. "Well, I have saved her life a few times and I do try to hold the door open for her when she lets me."

He boarded the plain, leaving the woman behind, and found his way to his seat. Booth couldn't help but glow at how proud he felt for his Bones right now. He put on the flight headphones and listened to the radio as the plane took off.

A little while later Booth was awoken by a flight attendant poking him. "Sir, you're going to have to adjust your seat back to the upright position. We're about to land."

He looked out the window and saw D.C. below him and realized that he slept through the whole flight. It was probably because he hadn't slept very well the night before after he had seen the picture; he was just too excited to get home.

After claiming his luggage and finding his car in the parking lot, Booth tried to think about what to do. He was unsure if he should go home first or if he should go directly to Bones' place. _She does have Parker after all, so it only makes sense…

* * *

_

Well I hope you liked it, i know what i like...reviews! 


	9. Parker Fun

**Thanks for all the great reviews.. hope you like the new chapter!

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**Chapter 9**

**Park(er) Fun**

"Hey, what are you doing here?" She said as she opened the door and allowed him to enter her apartment.

"Well, when you didn't show up at the lab I got kind of worried. And then you didn't answer your cell phone when I called so I decided to come by."

_So that's what the annoying beeping sound had been, my cell phone. _"Boyd that was really sweet of you but--" A sudden sound of a crash caused Temperance's head to snap in the direction of the bathroom. "PARKER?!?"

She ran to the bathroom quickly followed by Boyd. They found Parker on the floor of the bathroom next to a laundry basket that he had apparently fallen off of. A sob escaped from the boy, "I was trying to reach my toothbrush."

Brennan bent down and brought Parker's still wet form into her arms. She rocked him on her hip and telling him that everything was going to be alright. She kissed him on the head and with her empty hand grabbed Parker's toothbrush, put some toothpaste onto it, and held it up so that he could brush his teeth.

Still in her arms, Parker finished brushing his teeth and looked over at Brennan. "Can you dry me off now? Daddy normally helps."

"Alright, lets just get you into your room." She walked out of the bathroom and turned to Boyd. "This'll just take a second." He nodded in response and watched from the doorway as Temperance took the boy to his room.

Brennan put Parker down on the ground and begun to dry him off, occasionally tickling him in the process. His fits of giggles filled the apartment accompanied with her carefree laughter. Soon, they were finished and he was dressed and ready for their day of fun. They returned to the living room where Boyd had retreated to.

"Sorry, but I'm not going to be able to come into work today. I have Parker."

Boyd bent down to face him. "Hey, little man, how've you been?"

"Sam! Are you here to play with us today? We're going to the park."

Boyd stood back up and looked over at Brennan. "If I'm being invited…"

Temperance smiled back at him. "You are."

"Well, in that case, I'd love to come with you guys." Parker jumped up and down but quickly calmed down as he grabbed their hands and pulled them out the door.

* * *

Booth pulled up to her apartment building and got out of his car. He climbed the stairs two at a time and quickly reached Brennan's floor. He knocked on her door a few times but received no answer. Putting his ear to the door Booth was greeted with only silence. Figuring they must have gone out for lunch, he started for the stairs. 

"Are you looking for Tempe?" A voice stopped Booth and he turned around. It was one of Bones' neighbors.

"Yea, have you seen her?"

"Well, judging by the little boy singing 'we're going to the park, yay!' over and over again about 15 minutes ago, I think they went to the park."

"Thank you!" Booth said as he started for the stairs again.

"No problem."

* * *

As they walked into the park, Parker immediately took off for the jungle-gym. Brennan and Boyd took a seat on a nearby bench and began to talk. 

"So you already know Parker?" Brennan asked curiously.

"Yea, I met him a little while ago and I see him every once and while when Booth has him. Booth never mentioned who his mother was, I guess I now know why…"

"What! No Booth and I….Parker's not…we didn't…not mine." Brennan stumbled to find the words to assure her boyfriend that nothing had ever happened between her and Booth and that Parker wasn't hers. In the back of her mind though, for some reason, she just didn't want to dent it and just let him believe it.

"Sorry, I just assumed when Booth went out of town and you had Parker, I just figured…"

"No just doing a favor." She blushed for some reason unbeknownst to her.

"Dr. Bones, will you push me on the swing?" Brenna got up from her seat along wit Boyd and walked over to Parker.

"Hence why Parker calls me Dr. Bones." Boyd just laughed at her comment as she picked Parker up and put him into a child swing.

Brennan began to push him in the swing but quickly tired after awhile, not realizing how much effort it took to push a kid in a swing. She sat in a swing next to Parker as Sam took over for her.

Temperance was about to get up from the swing when she felt a sudden rush of air as her swing was pushed forward. After the initial shock wore off, she looked around and saw Parker and Boyd giving each other a high-five and giggling at her.

"That wasn't funny." She said as she began to slow down. Boyd approached her from the front and started to push her backwards, causing her to slowly gain height. "Boyd! Don't! I will so get you for this and you know I will."

This only caused Parker to laugh even harder from his swing next to her. Boyd lowered her a little so that they we're face to face. "Oh really. You think you could actually get me back?"

"Oh I know I could." She said with a smirk.

"You wanna bet." By this point they were face to face. Boyd realized how close they were and couldn't resist. He closed the gap and pressed his lips to hers. She moved her hands from the swing to the back of Boyd's head, savoring his lips. The 'ewwwww' coming from Parker broke them apart, slightly breathless, after a few seconds. Boyd just laughed at Parkers reaction as Brennan raised herself from her seat on the swing.

"Sam, don't you know that girls have cooties?" Gaining an even bigger laugh from Boyd, and a feigned look of hurt from Brennan.

She turned to Parker and reached to pick him up from the swing. "So you think I have cooties, do you?" As she reached to pick Parker up from the swing, she instead began to tickle him, gaining shrieks of laughter from the boy.

"Sam….help me!!" Parker managed to squeal out in between laughter.

"Alright, if I must." Boyd smiled as he approached Brennan and began to tickle her until she nearly fell over in laughter.

"Boyd, stop!" He did as she asked and stopped tickle her and instead wrapped his arms around her waist as she leaned her head backwards against his chest.

Parker smiled up at them, but then made a serious face. "But, really Sam, girls have cooties."

* * *

Booth pulled his car into a parking stop that was near the park. After finding his way to the park, Booth scanned the playground trying to find Parker or Brennan. He spent five minutes looking, but he just couldn't find them. Figuring that he had just missed them, Booth turned to walk away, but stopped when he heard something. 

"_Don't! I will so get you for this and you know I will."_

Booth hopefully turned towards the swings where he had heard Bones' voice come from. What he saw when he turned made his heart stop and then slowly break into pieces. Bones sat in a swing that Boyd was standing in front of, holding her up. They were saying something quietly to each other and then—. He stared as Brennan and Boyd shared a passionate kiss.

He silently thanked God for his son, when his words of protest brought them apart. He saw how Bones interacted with his son and he knew that his heart would have been inflated if it weren't for the fact that they were with Boyd instead of him.

Their shrieks of laughter made him turn away hurting. He started for his car deciding that he needed a drink and that afterwards he would pick up Parker. He glanced behind to see them one more time and then mentally kicked himself for doing so. Bones was picking up a gleaming Parker from the swing while she was leaning up against Boyd, who in return, had his arms wrapped around Bones' waist.

_Yea, that drink is looking pretty good right now…

* * *

_

Parker laughed as he slid down the slide for the millionth time. Brennan caught him at the end of the slide and brought him into a huge hug, causing Parker to go into another fit of giggles like he had done every time she caught him. Parker jumped from her arms and ran to climb the stairs to the slide. As he did so, Boyd came up behind her and held her.

"You're amazing with Parker." She turned her head and smiled at him.

"That's ironic, seeing as how I don't want kids." Boyd responded with a light kiss. "Wow, most guys normally seem to complain about that."

"Well, I'm not most guys." He gave her a devilish smile.

"Yea, you seem to have a much larger ego than most."

"Hey!"

"Here I come Dr. Bones!" Parker screamed from the top of the slide.

As she caught him this time, Parker didn't jump out of her arms, he just hugged her closer, which Boyd noticed. "You tired, buddy?"

"Yea."

"I'll go get the car." Boyd said as he pulled the keys out of his pocket.

"Alright we'll meet you at the street." Once Boyd had left, Temperance sat on a bench, with Parker still holding onto her tight. "What else is bothering you, baby?"

Parker pulled his head from her shoulder and looked up at her. "I miss daddy."

"It's alright, he'll be back soon and once he does you can go back home with him."

"Are you going to come with us?" He looked up at her innocently.

"I can't, I have to stay at my house. But you can come and visit me."

"But don't you miss daddy too?"

"Of course I miss your daddy, but that doesn't mean I can just come and live with you guys." Brennan just imagined how much Angela would be enjoying this conversation if she could hear it. "I promise that we'll still spend time together when your dad gets back. Now we should probably go before Sam thinks we've abandoned him."

By the time they reached the apartment it was dark outside. Boyd had dropped them off and left promising to see her tomorrow. Once they changed into their pajamas, Brennan called for pizza.

"So what do you want to do before bedtime?"

"Can we watch a movie? Mommy packed a few in my bag."

"I don't have a tv…wait I have an idea." Brennan walked over to her bag and pulled out her laptop. After she set it up on the table in front of the couch, she told Parker to pick out a movie. Once he returned with the movie and she had put it in, he turned and asked her a question.

"Can we wait until we have the pizza to watch the movie?"

"I don't see why not, but the pizza won't be here for another ten minutes."

"We can play hide and go seek!"

"Alright, I'll count and you go hide. One, two, three…" Parker fled from the room and quickly situated himself in a nice hiding spot. "…Ready or not here I come."

Temperance began by searching the living room checking behind the couch and curtains and underneath the tables. Then she moved to the kitchen where she checked in all of the lower cabinets. The bathroom came with no avail along with Parker's bedroom. She made her way to her own bedroom and began to look around. He wasn't in her closet, he couldn't fit under her table, he wasn't behind the curtains and she lifted up her bedspread only to realize that the legs of her bed were actually larger pieces of wood that wouldn't allow a sheet of paper underneath let alone a five year old boy.

She sat on her bed in defeat. "Parker, I give up. Where are you?"

Suddenly she heard giggles coming from underneath her bed. "Parker? How did you get under there?"

At the end of her bed the foot board flipped up to reveal Parker crawling out. Brennan suddenly remembered that when she had put the bed together there had been two pegs missing and since there wasn't any actual weight being place on the foot board, she had left the bottom two go without pegs, making a hidden enterance to underneath her bed.

"That was a smart hiding place. How did you find it?"

"I always hide under the bed. But don't tell daddy, he always has a hard to finding me." Just then there was a knock at the door.

"Well, it seems that our pizza is here." Parker ran out of the room and to the front door.

"Hurry up Dr. Bones. I'm hungry!" Brennan laughed as she picked up her purse and opened the front door. But she suddenly stopped when she realized that it wasn't the pizza boy at the door.

* * *

**So who's at the door? anyone have any ideas as to who? Iknow who it is. ;-D **

**Let me know what you think so far, and maybe anything you want to see and I'll try to see what I can do...**


	10. Damnation

**Well, here we are. Sorry it took a few days, but i've got this research paper that i've been working on. Don't worry though, i'll always be able to make time for Bones. And now we get to see who was at Brennan's door!! I got a few good guesses, but hey, we can't always be right! So i hope you like it and put away the rotting fruit and save it for another day (and hopefully a different story). On with the show!!!

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**Chapter 10**

**Damnation **

Angela heard a knock at her door and looked at her clock. _Who would be here at this hour?_ She reluctantly got up from her comfy seat on the couch and opened the door.

"Jack…"

Hodgins stormed into her apartment. "Look Ange, I've tried to ignore it and brush it off, but you've been ignoring me ever since Brennan yelled that crazy comment about you being pregnant the other day."

"I'm sorry…it's just…"

"Is it true? I can't help but think to myself that the only reason you would ignore me after what was shouted to the entire lab would be if what Brennan said was true. But she was just blowing off steam right? I mean, there's no way you could possibly be pregnant. It's totally illogical."

"Jack!"

"What!" He finally stopped his rambling and paid attention to her.

"I'm pregnant." This caused him to freeze, Hodgins knew that there was a possibility that what Brennan had said was right but he hadn't _really_ considered it.

"I…umm…huh." He turned to Angela, shocked. "I'm going to be a dad?"

"Of course your going to be a dad! How could you think that your not the father? I can't believe you!"

"Ange, that not what I meant!" But it was too late, Angela had already stormed out of the apartment, leaving Hodgins behind.

* * *

"Can I help you?" Brennan gazed at the older man standing outside of her door, he looked semi-familiar. She was sure that she had seen him before but she couldn't place it. He definitely wasn't the pizza boy because she knew him personally from all of the nights she had spent alone and hadn't been up to cooking. And plus, he didn't have their pizza boxes.

"Are you Dr. Temperance Brennan?" He asked her quickly.

"Who's asking?" She didn't trust the guy.

"Well that usually means yes." And then it hit her. She had seen a picture of him in the Madhoil boys' file; he was their father and Boyd's main suspect.

"Mr. Madhoil!"

Before she could react any quicker, a fist met Brennan's face and she was on the ground. She rolled over and saw Parker trembling next to her. She tried to yell at Parker to hide, but he was suddenly gone from her line of vision as he was lifted from the floor. Mr. Madhoil had hold of Parker and all Brennan could think about was protecting him.

Temperance pushed herself up from the ground. Just as a fist was about to come down on Parker's face, Brennan pushed him out of the way and took the beating for Parker. Once again on the floor, she turned to Parker and whispered to him. "Go hide Parker."

As Mr. Madhoil grabbed at Temperance, Parker ran from the room. "No big deal, I'll find him later, once I'm done with you."

Brennan took this opportunity while he was distracted to sweep his legs out from underneath of him. She quickly got up in time for him to recover and lunge for her again. This time she jammed the butt of her hand up and slammed it into his nose causing a loud crack. But he didn't stumble; he just swung his left hand even harder towards a startled Temperance.

The last thing Brennan remembered before the world went black was thinking: _Booth will find me. _

* * *

Angela walked up the stairs. She was pissed and she just needed her friend to calm her down. She rounded the corner of the hallway and approached Brennan's door. Angela was about to knock when she found the door slightly cracked.

"Bren?" Angela called as she began to open the door. She suddenly stood frozen to the spot. "Bren! Oh my God, Where are you?"

Angela looked around the trashed apartment. Everything was broken, torn, or scattered around the room. Then she remembered that Brennan had Parker. "Parker? Are you here?"

She made her way down the hallway looking in each room as she went; all of the looking the same as the first. When she reached Brennan's room, she tried one more time. "Bren? Parker? You here?"

A small muffled cry came from Brennan's bed as Parker came out from underneath. "Angela!" He cried and ran into her arms. "He has Dr. Bones!"

"It's alright. Come on, let's go out to the living room and call the police." She carried him out of the room and found her cell phone in her purse on the living room floor, where she had dropped it when she first opened the door.

After making the call to the police, Angela turned to Parker. "Can you tell me what happened?"

Parker looked up from the floor where they were sitting. "A man came and took her. He tried to beat me up, but she wouldn't let him and then she told me to hide. I heard a bunch of noises and then it was quiet until you came." At this point, he was crying again and couldn't stop. Angela just sat there on the floor, holding him.

-

_Okay, how many times can you screw up? Really, I'm bound to get it right one of these times. I mean, it's not like I'm drunk…_he put his hand up to his mouth and blew…_well, not **really** drunk. _Booth looked up from the street and saw that the lights in her apartment were still on. He made his way to the stairs, passing her car. _And no signs of Boyd's car, good!_

As he made his way down the hallway, he could hear sobs coming from the direction of her apartment and he quickened his pace. He opened the door to Brennan's apartment and stood there shocked.

"Angela? Where is she? What happened?" Angela looked up from her position on the ground revealing Parker. "Oh my God, Parker! Are you alright?" He asked as he rushed towards his son.

"He hurt Dr. Bones." Parker cried as Booth picked him up from Angela's arms.

"Who buddy? Who hurt Bones?" When he received no reply from the boy he turned to Angela. "What happened?"

"From what I got from Parker, this man came to the door and punched Bren out and then he went to beat up Parker…" She paused as she saw Booth suddenly look over his some, checking for any injuries. When he found none, he looked over at Angela.

"And?"

"And Brennan got up and pushed Parker out of the way and took the beating for him."

Booth didn't know what to think. He was thankful that Bones had done that, but at the same time he was pissed that she had gotten hurt. He snapped back to reality when Angela continued to talk.

"Then she told Parker to go and hide. The rest I don't really know, Parker heard a bunch of more noises and then everything went quiet until I got here."

After a long silence Booth looked at Angela. "How did you know to come? Did she call you?"

"No. I was coming over to talk to Bren. I guess it's a good thing I did." Angela glanced around the room again. "Anyway, the police should be here soon…"

But Booth wasn't paying attention. "Parker, can you describe the man to me. Did he say anything?"

Parker shook his head. "He was big and kind of older and he was mean."

"Do you know who he is?" Parker nodded his head. "Who is he?"

"Dr. Bones said his name before he hit her." Parker stopped and let out a tear. "Mr. Madi…Mr. Mado…."

Angela jumped in. "Mr. Madhoil?" Parker nodded his head in response and Angela turned towards Booth's confused face. "He's the boys' father on the case we're working on. _And_ he's the main suspect. But I don't know how he knows about Brennan, she didn't go to interview him with Boyd. In fact, she didn't interview anyone on this case, she been in the lab the whole time."

Booth grabbed his cell phone and dialed an number. "Yea, it's Booth. I need an address for a Mr. Madhoil….call me when you get it." He turned towards Angela.

"What are you going to do?"

"Do you think you can watch Parker for me? Just keep him safe until I get back."

"Yea, sure." She took Parker from Booth's arms. He turned to leave but stopped at her voice. "Booth. Just find her. Please."

"Don't worry Ange, I will." And he turned and left.

-

Brennan woke up in a cold dark room. She strained her eyes to try and look around but couldn't. One of her eyes was swollen shut and the other might as well have been because she couldn't see anything in the dark.

She tried to push herself up off of the ground that she was laying on, only to fall to the floor. She analyzed herself trying to take in what was injured. Her left side hurt, it felt bruised, maybe even a broken rib. _He must have continued to beat me after I passed out._

Then there was her face; one eye swollen shut, a bloodied mouth, and at one point there had been a bloody nose judging by the dried blood. She felt behind her where her hands were tied. Her hands hurt, but that was probably from hitting him. Her wrists were bleeding from the string that held her hands together; it was tied too tight. She sighed as she realized that there was much she could do in her condition.

The sound of a door opening brought her back to reality and she faced her capture. He slowly approached when he realized that she was awake. The cloth covering her mouth stopped her from screaming at him, but she still tried anyway.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to kill you. Yet." And that was the last thing she remembered as he kicked her in her already bruised gut, knocking her out.

* * *

Booth drove like a maniac down the street. He looked at house numbers as he passed and came to a screeching halt at the one he wanted. It was a regular house, looking like all the rest on the block. White with blue shutters and a white picked fence.

Booth made his way up the stares and looked into the window. There was nothing out of the ordinary. The lights were off and no car was in the driveway. He knocked twice and warned that he was with the FBI, but there was no response.

He quickly kicked down the door and held up his gun as he entered. He knew that he should have waited for back up to get there, but it was his Bones and he couldn't wait any longer for her.

So he made his way through the house, clearing the upstairs and the first floor, he made his way towards the basement. There were no noises coming from down stairs, but he knew better, so he slowly went down the stairs.

Once he reached the bottom he looked around the room and found nothing, not even a sign that someone had been there within the past few days. He turned and started up the stairs. He reached for the handle of the door, when he heard something.

* * *

Brennan once again woke up. This time she could hear noises coming from outside of the room. It sounded like stairs. Unsure if it was her capture, she remained as quiet as possible. As the sound of footsteps faded away, she breathed a sigh of relief. She felt her way around the room, but stopped as she felt a stab a pain shoot through her leg. The pain was so terrible she couldn't help but scream before she, yet again, passed out.

* * *

**So what do you think? Any feed back?**


	11. Rehabilitation

**Wow, i got that done quicker than i thought! It must have been all those great reviews motivating me...nahhh! So i went to a concert last night and i kind of passed out, something about dehydration...positive side: i spent all day today in bed, just to be safe; so i had nothing else to do but write!! I should pass out more often!

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Chapter 11

**Rehabilitation **

Brennan woke up to the sound of beeping. Slightly confused, she tried to sit up and look around, but her head rushed and she fell back into her bed.

Before she fell back to sleep she felt someone holding her hand and whispering to her and then she was out.

A few hours later she began to stir again, but this time she knew better than to try and sit up. So she sat and listened. If she strained, she could make out two people talking outside.

"As I said before we couldn't tell until we got the x-rays back, but we know that her face is just going to be badly bruised. We luckily got the bleeding under control from her leg wound. Now how did you say she got that?"

"There was a knife in her leg when I got there, but other than that I don't exactly know."

"Right well, the wound was substantially deep and required five stitches, but it should be fine now. Now with the x-rays we were able to see that her ribs are not broken but she has terrible internal bruising in her stomach."

The voice was laced with concern. "Anything else?"

"No, but I should tell you that if she hadn't been brought in when she was, she wouldn't have been able to stand much more. You did a good thing for your wife."

"She's not…yea thanks."

At the sound of the door fully opening and closing, Temperance shut her eyes, pretending to still be asleep. She felt, more than heard, someone sit in the chair next to her bed and take hold of her hand.

After a few moments he spoke up, "Bones, I know you're awake."

Her mind raced trying to understand how he knew her so well, but she didn't move.

"Okay, I know you're mad at me and you have every reason to. I was a total incompetent jerk and I don't deserve your forgiveness. But I'm still sorry." He sighed before continuing.

"You mean too much to me and I don't want to lose you, which does lead my overprotective alpha-male tendencies to show. I just can't help it. And I know that I over-reacted and that I shouldn't have punched Boyd, even if it really deserved it."

Temperance had to fight hard not to react to what he was saying to her. She knew that he had been acting like a jerk, but she also knew that it wasn't entirely his fault.

"I know that I tend to jump to conclusions, following my gut, whatever you prefer to call it, and I know that sometimes it can be wrong. Like when I saw the pregnancy test, I automatically jumped to the idea that it was yours, when it wasn't. Angela told me. She also told me that I was wrong in thinking that Boyd had proposed to you…."

She nearly wanted to scream at that. Her, marriage! He knew that she was completely apposed to the idea.

"…Yea, I know, you're completely apposed to the idea of marriage, but it just kind of went along with the whole idea of you being pregnant and all. I just jumped to conclusions. And then I saw you out at dinner with him. It felt like you were pushing me out of your life and replacing me with him." He laced his fingers through hers before continuing. "And I don't think I could stand not having you in my life."

"Temperance, I just want you to know how much I—"

The door to her room opened quickly and was followed by a low growl. She felt Booth quickly let go of her hand and she suddenly felt much more alone than before.

"Booth. What are you doing here?" She could tell from the voice that it was Boyd who had entered the room.

"Well, my best friend happens to be in the hospital. You see she was kidnapped and beaten. You may have heard, and seeing as how I was the one who found her…"

"Well, I am here now so—"

"Daddy!" A blob of little blonde hair ran into the room and jumped into Booth, who now stood by the door, interrupting the heated 'discussion'.

"Parker, I told you to wait outside." Angela suddenly appeared in the doorway along with Cam right next to her. "Sorry Booth, but as soon as he heard that you and Bren were in here, I just couldn't stop him."

"It's alright Ange, thanks for watching him."

"Hey Sam! Are you here to see Dr. Bones too?" Parker turned in Booth's arms to face Boyd.

"Yea, kiddo. I was just waiting for your dad to finish up."

Booth just snorted at his comment and only bit back his response because of Angela's elbow in his side.

"Can I see her?" Parker looked questioningly at Booth.

"Sure, buddy." Booth looked towards everyone. "Do guys mind?"

"Of course not!" Angela responded as everyone shuffled towards the door. Booth stayed with Parker while Cam, on the other hand, walked towards Booth.

"Hey, do you want me to stay with you?"

Parker quickly jumped down from Booth hands and replied for him. "No! I want to see Dr. Bones alone." And he attempted to push both Cam and Booth out of the door.

"Okay buddy, but are you sure you don't want me to stay?" Booth looked down at his son, but received no reply as Parker had already turned his back on them to go see Temperance. So Cam retreated out the door followed by a reluctant Booth.

Parker climbed on the chair and looked at Brennan. "Dr. Bones, you can wake up now!"

He climbed from the chair onto the bed and sat next to her. "Would you wake up if I made you breakfast in bed again?"

Temperance turned on her side and opened her eyes to Parker. "You don't have to do anything to get me up. Just you being here and talking to me." She smiled at him and he quickly reciprocated it.

He slowly lifted up his hand and softly brought it to her face. "Are you okay?"

"I am now buddy."

"Because I saw that mean man beat you up and then you protected me. It was the bravest thing ever!" A smile spread across his face as he said the last part, but she saw fear cross his eyes and realized how traumatic that must have been for him, seeing her being attacked.

"I'm just glad that you're alright Parker." She opened her arms to him and he quickly laid down, snuggling in next to her.

"I love you Dr. Bones. Thank you."

"I love you too Parker."

And with that they both fell asleep in each others arms. Finally feeling safe.

* * *

Outside of the room, Angela paced nervously back and forth, Hodings stood leaning against the wall, trying to comfort a frazzled Zach, Cam sat in a chair next to Boyd, both seemingly unaffected, and Booth stood by the door watching his son interact with his Bones inside the room. 

Once he saw them fall asleep, Booth turned to the squints and sighed for what felt like the hundredth time that day.

"I think you all might as well go home now. She just needs rest at this point and the doctor said she could be released within the next few hours."

Angela stopped pacing and looked at Booth. "Are you going to talk to her about what happened?"

"Yea and see if there's anything else she can tell us about what happened."

"Alright, come on Jack, Zach lets go. You'll call us if anything happens or if she needs anything right." It was more of a statement than a question.

"Of course."

"In that case, I am having extreme cravings for some strawberry ice cream…god this is going to be hard to get used to." As she, Hodgins, and Zach left he just laughed at himself for even thinking that Bones had been the one to be pregnant.

"I'll stay with you Seeley. It's the least I can do." Cam tried to hold Booth's hand, but he only pulled away.

"That's alright Cam. I think it would be better if you didn't stay."

"Booth, there's really no reason for you to stay. Go home." This time it was Boyd that had spoken up.

"Actually I have every reason to stay. You on the other hand might as well go too. If there's any change I'm sure you'll be the first person I call." He said this sarcastically, but knew that Bones would probably want Booth to call him, that was the reason he was here in the first place.

"I do need to deal with the whole Madhoil situation…fine, but I want to be called the moment anything changes." Boyd turned and left towards the elevators.

"Seeley, if anyone should be staying, it should be Agent Boyd. You don't really have to be here. Come home with me."

"Look in that room and tell me again that I have no reason to stay. Bones could have died protecting my son. My son, Cam! And he has been scared to death about her. Look in there and tell me what you see." He paused as Cam looked into the room. "Parker is attached to Bones whether you like it or not and there's no way he is going to willingly leave her side."

"Is there no way _he_ would willingly leave her side? Or is it _you_ that wouldn't willingly leave her side?" Cam just shook her head and turned and left Booth standing alone in the hallway.

* * *

Brennan woke to find her one hand wrapped around a sleeping Parker and her other hand laced with a sleeping Booth's hand. She tried her hardest not to wake either, but when she sifted ever-so slightly, Booth began to stir. 

"Hey Bones." He mumbled as he sat up. "How you feeling?"

"Like I got the crap beaten out of me." Booth cringed at her response and she suddenly felt guilty. "Sorry."

"No reason for you to be sorry. I should have been there for you. Instead I was stupid and got banned from the case and had to go to New York, where I couldn't keep you safe."

"You know I can take care of myself." She said half-heartedly.

"I know Bones, I just feel safer knowing that you're safe." He looked down at his feet and pulled his hand away, embarrassed. But Brennan reached her hand out and grabbed his retreating hand.

"Booth, you did the best you could in the situation. And you heard the doctor; if you hadn't saved me when you did, who knows what would've happened."

"So you were awake! I knew I was right." He gave her a long awaited charm smile and she just laughed. "And you tried to make me believe I was just talking to myself the whole time."

She smiled up at him and her eyes glistened for the first time in weeks. "I have no idea what you're talking about…"

"_Right._ Anyway, before you start planning your master escape plan, you should know that the doctor said you can leave within the next few hours."

"That's good." There was a quiet pause after she had said that. Brennan knew that Booth wanted to say something, but was having a hard time. So she remained quiet, encouraging him to continue.

"Umm Bones, we're going to have to talk about what happened…"

"What is there to talk about?" Brenna was confused. _I was kidnapped by Mr. Madhoil. Clearly he's the killer. Booth comes to save me. And captures Mr. Madhoil. What am I missing?_

"Well, when I got there…well, you were alone in the house with no signs of anyone else having been there. Actually there were no signs that anyone had been there within the past few weeks. If you hadn't made that noise, I never would have even found you."

"But that makes no sense. Mr. Madhoil beat me, kidnapped me and locked me up. I saw him. And he never moved me from that one room." She paused and started to think. "So you're saying that he's still out there?"

"Yea, Bones. He is." Booth's head fell at the feeling of letting her down.

"Parker…" She looked down at the small boy sleeping in her arms and a look of fear and worry spread across her face.

"I asked my mom to watch him for the next week or so, just to be safe. She's picking him up tonight. And I would love you to go with them…" She opened her mouth to protest, but Booth put his hand up to stop her. "…but I know that's not going to happen. So I'm going to being staying with you until this guy is behind bars."

He cringed, waiting for her harsh reply about how she could take care of herself, but it never came.

"Okay."

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so was passing out worth it? 


	12. Cohabitation PI

**Thanks for all the reviews and your 'get wells'. I was actually excited to see that people wanted me to pass out again... don't worry, I was able to avoid it this time. **_**And**_** I think the chapter good, but that's me. It's a Fluff chapter, and angst, but i had to split the chapter in 2, i felt it was too long and plus there's the suspense!! (oooohhhh, ahhhhh) hopefully causing reviews...but one can only hope. P.S. I love all of you that are reading this...even if you aren't reviewing, it gives me something to look foreword to doing. **

**_So I reposted this with a few grammtical changes and such...apparently I really shouldn't write things at 2 in the morning..._**

**On with the show!!!

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**Chapter 12**

**Cohabitation **

**Part I**

Booth slipped his key into the lock and opened the door. Brennan pushed her way by and dropped her purse onto the side table, trying carefully not to drop Parker, who was asleep in her arms. Looking around, everything looked normal to her. But Booth stopped in the doorway and stared, thinking about how her apartment had looked before after she had been attacked.

"Booth?" He snapped back to reality as she called to him. "You gave your mom my address right?"

"Huh?" He looked over at Brennan as she sat down on the couch, still holding Parker. "Oh, right. Quit worrying Bones. I gave her your address and she should be here….actually any minute now. We should probably wake Parker up before she gets here."

Temperance glanced down at the boy sleeping in her arms and then back up at Booth. She sighed, unhappy that she had to wake him from the happy solitude of his dreams.

"Parker…" Brennan lightly rubbed the back of her hand against his face. "Time to get up." His body lightly stirred and he opened his eyes for a second, only to close them and snuggle closer to Temperance.

"Hey bub, Bones and I need to talk to you." Booth walked over and sat next to Brennan. "Once we're done you can go right back to sleep."

Parker slowly opened his eyes and sat up in Brennan's lap. "I'm awake." He yawned out, barely convincing them.

"How would you like to spend some time with grandma?" Booth asked him trying to sound as up beat as humanly possible on only one hour of sleep.

"Yay! I haven't seen grandma in awhile." He turned from Booth excitedly to look at Brennan. "I can show you my room because I have my own room at grandma's house and I can show you all my big kid books. And we can go to the park. Her park is really big and the swings go really high!"

"Umm, Parker…your dad and I can't come with you." Brennan forced herself to say, trying to ignore the tears she saw begining to form in his eyes.

"I don't wanna go if your not going to be there." He threw his arms around her and held on for dear life as he kept talking. "What if I said I don't like grandma anymore, could I stay with you then?"

Brennan looked over at Booth, her eyes pleading for him to help her.

"It'll only be for a few days buddy and I know your grandma was really looking forward to seeing you." Although he did look up from his position on Brennan's lap, Parker still wouldn't loosen his grip.

Brennan looked down at him trying to comfort him as his quivering lip was now accompanied with full blown tears. "Hey, buddy. I promise that as soon you get back, we can go to the park together."

"Pwomise?" He managed to get out between tears.

She smiled and quickly nodded her head. "I promise, Parker. I'll always be here for you."

Just as he began to loosen his grip there was a knock at the door and his hands quickly tightened again. Booth jumped up, not realizing what had just happened and answered the door. Brennan stood from the couch and carried Parker over to the door, wondering whether he was going to be afraid whenever someone knocked on the door now.

An older woman entered the apartment and immediately took Booth up in a hug. "Hey mom. Thanks for this."

"Oh it's a pleasure Seeley. I barely ever get to see my favorite grandson here." Parker looked over at his grandma and said hello, but he still refused to let go of Brennan. She looked up at Booth hoping for some help.

"Okay, bub, you have to go with grandma now." Booth pealed Parker away from Brennan and let him down onto the ground. "Now you be good, okay?"

"Yes daddy." Parker hugged his dad and turned to Brennan holding out his arms. "Bye, Dr. Bones."

Brennan stooped down and hugged Parker, giving him a quick kiss on the top of his head. Booth looked on in awe and admiration at how well Bones had adjusted to his son…while he skillfully avoided his mother's questioning stare when Parker had called Brennan Dr. Bones.

She stood back up and mussed up Parker hair, gaining a smile from both father and son, before nudging him forward out the door with his grandma. They all called their last goodbyes and Booth went to close the door, but Parker ran back and looked worriedly up at Temperance.

"You haven't forgotten your promise have you?"

"I could never forget it." She looked down fondly at Parker.

"Okay, good. I just wanted to make sure." As he turned to leave, he quickly yelled over his shoulder. "Take care of Dr. Bones daddy!" And then they were gone down the hallway.

Brennan retreated to the couch as Booth closed the door. "Don't worry, I will."

Brennan turned to the couch and tried to ignore Booth's comment as he shut the door. Generally, she pretended not to hear the comments he murmured, but lately it had been getting increasingly harder. She more often than not felt a flutter in her stomach. She quickly shook her head and paid intricate attention to the rug beneath her feet, which suddenly seemed extremely interesting.

Booth moved to sit next to her, but as soon as he sat down she jumped up and made her way towards the hallway.

"I'm going to take a shower now." She barely waited for a response before taking off down the hallway for the bathroom.

"Umm…okay." He replied startled. But she was already gone. _What was that about?

* * *

_

Brennan shed her clothes and stepped into the steaming hot water that was pouring down. She tried to relax as the water massaged her back, but her thoughts kept wandering back towards the other room with Booth. She immediately tensed back up and sighed. She couldn't even go 5 minutes without thinking about him. And lately it had been getting in the way.

'Okay let's try to not think about Booth.' She thought to herself as she washed her hair.

'I can't believe I'm going to say this, but I really am going to miss Parker. He's such a great kid; he's so much like his dad – _Crap!_ Well that didn't work.'

'Alright, fine let's think about Boyd. Well, he is a _really_ good kisser, but I bet that Boo– _Stop, what you are thinking!_' She took a deep breath and went back to thinking about Boyd.

'Let's see…well, his initials are SB: Seeley B – _Damn_! I mean Sam Boyd.' Temperance let out a frustrated groan. He had been a total and complete ass to her boyfriend; her boyfriend who was so kind, cute and caring. And yet she couldn't stop thinking about Booth.

As the water began to chill, Brennan stepped out of the shower and put on her fuzzy pink robe. She left the bathroom and walked down the hall, toweling off her wet hair as she went.

In the kitchen she looked through the refrigerator, but was unsuccessful at finding anything. Walking towards the door, she called out to Booth.

"What do you want for dinner?" She leaned against the doorframe continuing to towel her hair. When she didn't receive a response she looked up to find Booth staring at her wide eyed, but he quickly recovered.

"Listen, I'll call you later. Okay?"_ What? Why would he leave? Did I say something?_ But she suddenly realized that Booth was on his cell phone and her worried turned from him leaving to the prospect that whoever he was talking to might have heard her. "Alright bye."

He closed the phone and looked back at her. "Sorry about that. So…pink? I never figured you for a pink, warm and fuzzy type of person."

She automatically stopped drying her hair and threw the wet towel at him.

"Hey!" He laughed as he peeled the wet rag off of his face.

"You asked for it!"

"I did not!"

"Did too!"

"Did not!"

"Did – uhh, never mind." He grinned in victory and she just rolled her eyes. "So dinner?"

"How about pasta?"

"I don't have the right ingredients to make it."

"Well, let's see what you _do_ have." He moved to the kitchen, lightly brushing her arm as he passed, causing to wave of goose bumps to settle over her body.

She quickly snapped back to reality and turned around, following him into the kitchen. "Not much."

"Geez Bones! Do you ever go grocery shopping?" He asked as he looked into the refrigerator that she had abandoned only moments before.

"Not really. I spend most of the time at work and if I'm at home I generally get takeout."

"I was jok - never mind. I think I can whip us up one of my most popular meals with some of the stuff you _actually_ have." Booth gave her a charm smile and quickly winked at her. Brennan hurriedly tried to hide the blush that spread across her cheeks.

* * *

"Really Booth, grilled cheese? That's your specialty?" Brennan looked over at Booth as he handed her a pan to dry. 

"One of many. And don't say that you didn't like it."

"Oh yea, it was good, if you could get over the burnt edges and deficiency of cheese…" He mocked shock and hurt.

"Hey! Firstly, it was well-done and I put just enough cheese on so that it wasn't squeezing out the sides. Secondly, no normal person uses the words cheese and deficiency in the same sentence."

"Fine. Whatever you say Booth." She rolled her eyes and put away the last dish.

"That's not fair!"

"What now!?"

"You're saying I basically won the argument--"

"And you're complaining!" She was completely confused now.

"--But your tone was that one where you try to make me feel bad for doing something wrong, almost mocking me."

She just rolled her eyes in response. "I'm going to get changed."

"But we weren't finished arguing yet!" Booth seemed shocked that she was giving up so easily. She must have been really tired to do that.

"No, _you_ weren't finished arguing yet." She turned to leave the kitchen.

"Alright, I'll drop the argument. For now."

He could practically feel her smile in response, but her back was turned to him so he couldn't tell. Really, he didn't mind looking at her from behind. _Cool it Booth, she's your partner!_

"Is it alright if I take a shower now?"

"Yea, it's the door next to my dresser." She walked to the hall closet and pulled out a few towels. Booth followed after her.

"As in it's in your bedroom?" _Bones' bedroom…God, this isn't helping. Calm down..._

"Yup. You can head in and I'll wait till you're in the shower to get changed."

She pushed him towards the door of her bedroom, clearly wanting to hurry him up so that she could change out of her robe. Brennan hadn't gotten changed before dinner because she had been too caught up in some conversation / argument she was having with Booth. And now she was starting to regret not changing; it was cold and the robe just wasn't cutting it anymore.

Booth walked into the bathroom, trying to avoid staring at her room's contents and soaking everything in. It was so hard being with her all the time, let alone being in her bedroom; the bedroom that he had dreamt about before… He rapidly stripped out of his clothes and turned the water on cold.

* * *

Temperance waited a good five minutes after she had heard the water start to slip into her room and change. She had wanted to avoid the possibility of him forgetting something and coming out while she was changing. She blushed even at the thought of it. 

_Why does he do this to me? I never blush! And yet when he's around it's like I dunked my head into a can of red paint._

Brennan readjusted herself on the couch and stared emptily at the book in her hands, half wanting to take it and beat her head soundly with it. The image of it made her laugh out loud. Just the thunking noise it would make when it came in contact with her head. _Thunk! Thunk!_

She lifted her head when she realized that the banging noise wasn't coming from her imagination, but from someone knocking at the door. She hesitantly got up from her seat and walked over to the door. After a few seconds of contemplation, Brennan opened the door and a fist nearly came in contact with her face as it went to knock again.

"Oh, Tempe, sorry!"

"Hey Sam."

"God, I've been worried about you and then you didn't answer your phone and the people at the hospital had said you were released after much persuading of doctors, since apparently they wanted you to stay a little longer. But then again, you were the patient and we all know that isn't always good…"

"I'm fine." She said it automatically now, just out of habit. Brennan thought back to her hospital stay, when Booth had told her that the doctors said she was fine to go home…_I'll ask him later._

She was instantly brought up into a hug. After a few minutes they pulled apart and Boyd brought his lips down on top of hers. She was hesitant at first, but quickly sought more as she moved her tongue over his bottom lip asking permission. It had been too long since someone had actually cared enough for her…_not true…_and she needed the comfort.

"Hey Bones, where did you put my overnight bag?" Booth walked down the hall and called out but stopped halfway through the word bag when he saw the two of them kissing passionately at the front door, and the color drained from his face.

Boyd stared at Booth, who had just walked out of Brennan's bedroom in nothing but a towel asking where his clothes were. He turned his gaze to Brennan who looked like a deer caught in headlights...

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**Review, my pretties!!**


	13. Cohabitation PII

**Okay, sorry about the errors in chapter 12, i changed them as soon as i noticed. Chapter 13 is unfortuantely my shortest chapter so far, i think, BUT i feel it is soooooo worth it. i don't know. read it and tell me whether you think it was worth it.

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Chapter 13

**Cohabitation Part II**

Brennan stood frozen in place. Before she even had the chance to attempt to form a single word, Boyd had turned and stormed down the corridor. With one quick glance back at Booth, Brennan took off down the hallway after Boyd.

"Sam, wait!" She caught up to him as he reached the elevator and spun him around by the elbow. "It's not what it looks like."

"Oh, and what do you think it looks like? Because to me it looks like you were cheating on me with your partner. Who, might I add, is sleeping around with your boss."

"Booth is just here until this guy is caught." She placed her hand gently on the side of his face and forced him to look her in the eye. "That's all."

"Really?"

"Yes. Really."

He looked back at her sheepishly. "Sorry. I guess I overreacted."

"Just a little. Oh, and by the way, it's whom."

"What?" He looked at her like she was crazy.

"You said 'who, might I add.' It should have been whom, might I add." He gazed down at her and began to laugh. "What?"

"Nothing." Boyd scooped her up into his arms and kissed her on the head. "I'm sorry…so I guess I'll stop by tomorrow. Night, Tempe." And with that he stepped onto the elevator and the doors closed behind him.

* * *

Booth watched from the doorway as his Bones chased after another man. What hurt him the most was that she had looked back before she proceeded to rip his heart out and stomp all over it. She had looked back, which meant that there was apart of her that cared enough about him to do so. 

Really, he would have chosen for her not to have caredd, that way he could tell himself that there had never been a chance. But there _had_ been a chance, and in his eyes he had failed. He had failed to win his Bones' heart.

As Booth watched Bones being swept away in another man's arms, he suddenly felt as if she was no longer _his _Bones.

He turned from the doorway and walked back towards the kitchen, hoping to find a nice cold beer that he could wallow in. As he made his way down the hallway, Booth stumbled over something, but quickly regained his footing and looked down to what had caused the trip.

_Of course it would be my bag with my clothes in it. Just my damn luck. _Booth bent down and began to collect the clothing that had fallen out of his bag. _Lose your clothes. Lose your suspect. Lose your case. Lose your gir—_

"Booth, what are you doing on the floor?" Booth looked up to find Brennan standing in the doorway with her arms across her chest and staring at him in confusion.

"Well, Bones, I figured I'd have to scrub the floors before I could go to the ball." He said sarcastically.

"I don't know what that means." She looked back at him blankly.

"You know, Cinderella. Had to scrub the floors and stuff before she could go to the big ball. Ringing any bells? Come on, you've had to have seen Cinderella!"

"You're going to a party?" She seemed more confused than ever.

"Never mind, Bones." He stood up from the floor with his bag in hand, sighed, and started for the bedroom. "I'm going to get changed now."

"You okay Booth?" She lightly turned him, the way she had Boyd only minutes before.

He looked down into her eyes and saw her concern. He realized that he couldn't do this to her. She did care about him, and if he hurt her by showing his feelings, it might be the final straw that broke the camel's back and he would lose her forever. He had to be there for her, as a friend. Signs of anything more might confuse her and potentially cause more harm. He sighed again.

"Booth…?"

"Yea, Bones. Everything is great." He turned from her and entered her bedroom, all the while, feeling his heart sink to the bottom of his chest.

_She was never your girl.

* * *

_

Brennan held out her hand with a beer in it and he grabbed it as he slouched down on the couch next to her.

"Listen, I didn't mean to mess up anything between you and Boyd."

"It's alright. We're fine." She stared blankly at the wall in front of her. For the first time, Booth couldn't get a read on what she was feeling.

"You and him are fine, or we are fine?" He turned her head to look at him.

_Damn you Booth! I don't know, I was being vague on purpose. _She lied. "Both."

"You sure?" There was a long pause as he held her eyes, but she soon looked away.

"Why does Parker call me Dr. _Bones_?" She quickly turned the tables, hoping to take the attention off of her.

"So...maybe I talk about you a bit around Parker. Okay, a lot! Althoug, after the first time he met you, I didn't even have to be the one to bring up the topic. Face it Bones, Parker's been in love with you since day one." Booth suddenly realized what he had said and turned away, trying to cover the blush that had spread across his face as he finished off his beer and started another. "Nice avoidance by the way. Change of topic did not go unnoticed."

"I wasn't avoiding…"

"Yea, sure Bones." He gave her his heart-melting charm smile and shook his head.

Brennan just laughed at his persuasive technique. That reminded her.

"Boyd mentioned that he stopped by the hospital after I was released. He said that the doctors were a bit disgruntled at my leaving. Apparently, they were forced to be convinced that I would be fine to go home." She turned her questioning gaze on him.

"Was there a question in there?" His heart had stopped when she brought up the topic of Boyd.

"No, I never said that there was going to be a question."

"Hmm, to me it was implied that there was going to be a question."

"Booth!"

"What?"

"You're trying to avoid the topic by turning the focus onto the fact that I had supposedly proposed a question."

"Seems familiar…sound like anyone you know."

"Fine. New neutral topic." They both started on another beer.

"I'm sorry."

"What?!" She looked up at him and held his hurt, pleading eyes with her confused ones. "Why are you sorry?" She couldn't take the hurt and seriousness of his eyes. "Did you hit another civilian for no reason?"

"Bones, were you serious or did you just crack a joke?"

"Well, it depends, did it make you feel any better?"

"A bit…" He lied. It hurt him just to know that he had hurt her when he had hit Boyd. He had been selfish and only led her to more pain.

"Then it was a joke." She smiled up at him, but it didn't quite reach his eyes. "Booth?"

"I'm sorry I wasn't there soon enough, I'm sorry that I didn't catch the guy, and I'm sorry that I didn't protect you."

"Booth, there was noting you could have done."

"It's just, I always get there, I always get the bad guy and I always save you. That's just the way it goes!"

She pulled him into a hug and tried to hide the tears that were falling onto his shoulder as his hands found their rightful place around her hips.

She slowly pulled away, but just enough so she could look him in the eye. "I should be slightly offended by your accusation, but for tonight I'll let it pass."

She smiled up at him, never breaking eye contact. She didn't want to; for some reason it felt…_safe_. And before she even realized what she was doing, Brennan slowly brought her face closer to his, stopping only millimeters from his mouth.

Booth hesitated, unsure of whether she wanted him to close the distance, and unsure as to if he really should. But before he could make up his mind, Brennan had made it up for him.

Everything melted away around them as hesitance wore away and the kiss was filled with pure passion. A moan escaped Temperance as his tongue caressed its way over her lips, savoring the taste. She helplessly opened her mouth and his tongue slipped inside, exploring the new territory.

Her hands went from raking through his hair, to the hem of his shirt, in the need to touch his bare chest. She quickly tugged at his shirt and he helped her remove the suddenly hated clothing. Her hands roamed free over his chest, taking in every detail of his finely tuned muscles. The feeling of him tightening underneath her caused her to push lightly on his chest and he fell backward on the couch.

She quickly straddled him and dipped her head down, massaging his chest with her mouth now. A groan escaped Booth's mouth only encouraging her more as she worked her way downward. Just as she reached low enough, she felt a shift and she was suddenly on the bottom.

He smiled down on her and her heart rate quickened ten times more than the adrenalin could have ever caused. Their was something in his eyes other then the normal lust, but before she could tell what it was, his mouth was back trying to claim dominance as he stood and scooped her into his arms.

"B—I—ahhh—bed—room—"

They made their way down the hallway, hoping, but not really caring, whether they made it to the bed in time.

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**I am feeling slighlty unsure of myself all the sudden...**


	14. Confusion

**Sorry this is extremely short...but i felt that i need it to be, to set it apart. I would also like to thank all of those who have reviewed, i love you all (ten times over). And of course let me hear your ideas, it's nice to know what other people think the direction it should take.

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Chapter 14

**Confusion**

Brennan woke up the next morning to find herself cold and alone. She quickly looked around, unsure of whether it had just been a dream. But her strewn clothes assured her that she had definitely not dreamt it. The only problem was, where was Booth?

She reluctantly stood up from her bed and made her way to the bathroom to retrieve her robe. After it was securely tied around her waste, Brennan left her bedroom in search of Booth. As she walked down the hallway towards the living room, she saw her front door open.

"Hey, your up! I just went out and got us some breakfast. I figured we both might be hungry." Booth strode into the apartment a put a bag of bagels down on the table.

"Thanks." Brennan grabbed a bagel, but just picked at it.

Booth remained standing in the kitchen doorway, unsure of what to do. He had woken up that morning glowing. It was a beautiful, quiet morning, but what brought a smile to his face was the woman he had woken up with in his arms. He had dreamt about it many times before, but none of it compared to the feeling he had felt when she snuggled closer to him in her sleep.

Brennan chanced a glance at Booth and quickly went back to picking at her bagel. She was nervous. Nervous because she had just cheated on her boyfriend. Nervous that he might find out. Nervous that she may have just ruined her relationship with her best friend.And she was nervous about how she felt about Booth. She knew that she had fallen for him long ago, but had convinced herself that nothing would ever happen. Even with what Angela had said, she had never actually thought that Booth liked her that way.

_Maybe he doesn't. Maybe last night was just a random thing. _

_Booth doesn't do random flings. _

_We_ did _have a lot to drink…_

_Ahhh! I can't think about this right now._ She looked back up at Booth and quickly looked back down when she saw hi staring at her. _I need to get away from Booth, to clear my head._

Brennan suddenly stood up and walked back to her bedroom, reappearing minutes later fully dressed. Booth looked up questioningly.

"Bones?"

She ignored him and walked to the front door and yanked it open harder them she had meant to.

"Tempe! Wow, you okay?" Boyd smiled down at her.

"Yea, I'm just going for a jog." She made to move past Boyd, but Booth stopped her.

"Bones, you can't go out when you were just kidnapped and your attacker is still out there."

"I need to clear my head. I need to think. I need to get out of here. I just need to….just...move Boyd!" Brennan pushed her way past Boyd and started down the hallway.

Boyd quickly followed and stopped her, enveloping her in his arms. Brennan fought for him to let go but eventually gave up as the tears fell.

Booth stood in the doorway and watched as the scene before him unfolded. He felt a pain in his chest when he noticed the tears falling down her face.

_This isn't how it's supposed to be. I'm supposed to be the one who holds her and protects her. I'm not supposed to be the one who hurts her. I can't do this..._

Booth made his decision and grabbed his car keys.

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_Don't hate me! Everything always works out in the end...or at least in the sequel. Crap! Did I just write that? Pretend you didn't read it...yup i never said the word sequel. Next chapter: where is Booth going? What did he decide? What does Bones think about this?_

_Reviews...?_


	15. Plummeting into the Great Unknown

**So here it is, the last chapter! In the chapter i mention the Howard Epps thing, and i know i said that this is after Judas on a Pole , making it prior to Man in a Cell, but we're going to pretend that the Howard Epps thing still happened. So anyway, I'm dreaming that i might be able to get 100 reviews (yeah, i know, dreaming). Hey, this is my first ever completed story!! **

**Soooo here is the end. I hope you like it. **

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Chapter 15

**Plummeting into the Great Unknown **

The cool morning air blew hard against his face as Booth jogged towards the bridge. He couldn't stop thinking about how wrong things had gone. He needed to clear his mind, get perspective..._pull a Bones. That definitely isn't helping. _

He made his way across the high bridge, ignoring the passing cars to his right. He loved her, but now he had probably lost her. _Good job genius!_ Booth paused as he saved himself from nearly tripping over a suitcase.

_That's random, why is there a suitcase in the middle of the bridge?_ Booth looked around to see if maybe someone had dropped it. There was no one in front of him, so he turned and glanced behind him. And that's when he saw it. He had been too oblivious before to have noticed when he passed, but no he saw him. The man standing on the railing of the bridge, preparing himself to jump.

Booth took slow steps forward towards the man, trying not to startle him. That could end badly.

"Sir, why don't you come down from there?" Booth tested the waters. But what he got in return surprised him.

The man turned his head to face Booth. Mr. Madhoil stared at Booth with tears streaming down his eyes. The look of panic increased tenfold when Booth took a step closer. He knew that this had been the guy that had kidnapped Bones, but Mr. Madhoil didn't know who Booth was, so he decided to keep it that way.

"Sir, maybe if you came down from there we could talk?"

"Don't come any closer or I'll jump." Booth held up his hands and took a deep breath.

"I just want to help you."

All of the sudden, the other people on the bridge and in their cars came to the realization of what was going on. Booth figured someone must have called the police as he heard sirens in the background approaching the bridge.

"I don't deserve to live, I've done something terrible, I don't deserve to live," He was in his own world as he turned back to face the water that was far, far below him. "I don't deserve to live."

Booth recognized that he was about to jump and sprang to his side, just in time to catch his arm. But Mr. Madhoil didn't like this so he began to try to wiggle free from Booth's grasp.

"Let me go." He looked up with pleading eyes. "If you knew what I've done, you would rather me die too."

"Mr. Madhoil you must stop moving and let me pull you up."

His visage quickly turned from pleading to shock. "How do you know my name?"

_Shit! _"I know who you are, and I still am not going to let you do this to yourself."

Booth was now on the edge of the bridge himself, trying to pull the man up, but he was quickly losing his grip on the railing.

* * *

Brennan retreated from her kitchen with a warm cup of tea. She silently sat down on the couch and thought about what had happened that morning. She was pissed that she had broken down. She had never done that before, _if it hadn't been Booth... _

She lowered her head at the thought of Booth. She hadn't even noticed when he had left; she had been too busy crying into Boyd's arms. _I've screwed everything up. _Brennan mentally beat herself up again as she remembered the look on his face as she ran from him in the apartment.

She placed the mug down on the coffee table as she reached for her cell phone and contemplated calling him. Her list of pros and cons about calling Booth was interrupted after a few minutes, when the cell rang.

"Brennan." She closed her eyes and dreaded the idea of who could be on the other end.

"Tempe, it's me. I think you need to come down to the Memorial Bridge right away." Boyd's voice sounded through the phone.

"Why? What's wrong?" She didn't really feel like getting up. She much preferred the idea of sitting on her couch in self-loathing misery all day.

"It's Booth." She jumped off the couch and grabbed her keys.

"I'm on my way." She replied as she ran out the door of the apartment building and ran for her car.

Ten minutes later she was as close to the bridge as she could get. There were cars everywhere, fire trucks, police cars, and there was even a helicopter hovering above the bridge. Brennan's blood ran cold as she approached the road blocks. An ambulance had just been let through.

"I'm sorry, ma'am, but you aren't permitted past this point." A police man flashed her a smile.

Too worried to be pissed at him, Brennan gazed past him and tried to she what had happened. "What exactly, is going on?"

"Well, it seems that a man tried to jump and some—"

She didn't hear the rest of what the officer said as Boyd approached from behind and called out to her.

"Tempe, come on," he turned to the officer. "She's related to one of the people involved."

He heart stopped. _He couldn't have. Booth wouldn't. _She ran behind Boyd and slowed down as they neared what seemed to be the 'crime scene'. She pushed her way past people, ignoring their shouts of anger, she didn't care, she just needed to prove it wrong. _It can't be Booth._

She made her way to the front of the crowd. Relief flowed over her when she saw Booth hanging onto the bridge with one hand and another person with his other. She couldn't see who the other man was because he was too far down, but she couldn't have cared less. Booth was fine!

But the fear quickly came back when she realized that he was on the other side of the railing and had the possibility of falling himself.

"Tempe, there's something you should know." Boyd came up behind her and grabbed her hand. "The man that Booth is trying to save…well, it's Mr. Madhoil."

Brennan didn't know how to react. She was scared for Booth's life, and pissed at him for trying to save the guy that had kidnapped her and she was at the same time happy because it meant that they had their guy. She was confused, but the most important thing at the moment was gripping onto the railing for dear life.

She turned back and looked at Booth and tried to hold back the tears that were threatening to come. Everything seemed to be going in slow motion as Booth lost his grasp on the railing and began to fall. Brennan tried to run foreword, but was held back by Boyd. Then the tears began to fall.

* * *

Booth blinked his eyes trying to keep the sweat that was dripping down from his forehead from stinging his eyes. He held on to Mr. Madhoil tighter when he realized that he had stopped fighting him. He turned his head and looked behind him towards the bridge. He knew there was nothing that they could do to help at the moment so he went back to thinking about a way out of this. 

He readjusted his grip on the bridge railing and tested to see if he could pull himself up. He had managed to pull them up about an inch when is arm gave out and they jutted back down to where they had been only moments before.

His arms were tiring from holding on for so long. He figured he must have been hanging there for at least 40 minutes. He sighed, realizing that he didn't have many options.

His thoughts flashed back to Howard Epps and how he had died. This was too similar. If he lost this guy he wasn't sure if he would be able to live with himself. And now he wouldn't even have Bones there to help him through it.

He was brought back to reality as his hand began to slip and the feeling of the cool metal railing vanished underneath his fingers. As he began to fall, his sniper training began to kick in and he thought about the man his was still holding onto.

Booth grabbed the man, holding him up against his stomach; he quickly turned in the air so that his back was to the quickly approaching water.

His last thoughts before impact were of a smiling Bones.

* * *

On the bridge, Temperance managed to push herself form Boyd's grasp and ran for the railing. She gasped. Her tears increased and s smile spread across her face. 

There, down on the water, was a rescue boat with net. And there inside the net was Booth. She saw the rescue team swarm around the two as the boat made it's way towards land.

Brennan turned and ran for the dock. She pushed her way through the crowd and made it to her destination only to be stopped be some more officers.

"You have to let me by, that's my partner." She pleaded with them. Luckily one of the officers recognized her from when he had let her onto the bridge minutes before. She thanked him as she ran by to the advancing boat.

* * *

Booth ignored the EMTs on the boat and looked back at the bridge. He could have sworn that he had seen Bones. He turned around when he heard the boat make contact with the dock. He brushed off the people trying to help him onto the dock and turned back to face the bridge. He heard the noise of the news reporters and saw the flashes of the cameras but he didn't notice. 

He turned when he heard her call his name. She was crying as she ran towards him and threw herself at him.

"Don't you ever do that again." She mumbled as he wrapped his arms around her and held on with all the strength he had left. "God you scared me." She pulled away slightly so she could see his face.

He looked into her eyes and lightly brushed away a remaining tear. "Sorry Bones. I didn't mean to."

* * *

Two days later, Brennan walked into her office smiling. When she noticed the person sitting in her seat she crossed her arms. "You do know that this is _my _office right?" 

Booth dropped his feet from her desk and got up from her chair. "Geez Bones, why can't you ever start off with a nice hello?"

She just glared at him, even though on the inside she was still beaming at the fact that he was still alive.

"Not even for a hero?" Booth smiled at her.

She rolled her eyes. "Just because the papers are calling you a hero and Wake Up D.C. wants to have you on the show along with every other daytime show, doesn't make you a hero."

His smiled only widened. He was glad that things seemed to have gone back to normal. True he would have been happier passionately kissing her right now, but he could wait.

She cracked and broke out into a huge smile and laughed, she was so happy that he was alive and here in her office.

Yeah, he could wait.

* * *

_What did you think? Hmmm, sequal anyone? _


End file.
